Quo vadis after China?

Because they are severely lacking in any perceptible achievements except for ranting endlessly against their lone political rival, Vice President Sara Duterte, the garrulous political characters now outdo each other under the glare of television klieg lights, denouncing China’s reaction over Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesperson Jay Tarriela’s denigration of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Unfortunately, Tarriela’s demeaning calumny was not imposed a sanction by the chain of command, which starts with President Bongbong Marcos as the commander in chief. Ma. Theresa Lazaro, the secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs, whose functions had been usurped by an unrefined functionary at the PCG, is as silent as a lamb, and neither is the Defense Department speaking. Their silence merely indicates their sanction of Tarriela’s insults against China’s leader.

Not to be outdone, on the other hand, are incendiary denunciations from politicians who severely lack political decorum, as well as knowledge of what brought about the conflict between the Philippines and China over the Scarborough Shoal, which is actually a subject of multiple claims.

As brief background, in 2012, the Philippines withdrew its contingent of the Philippine Coast Guard from Scarborough Shoal, allegedly on suggestions and advice from the US to avoid tensions with China. Then-President Noynoy Aquino acceded, and as a result China took control of Scarborough. 

At a certain point, Aquino sent then-Senator Antonio Trillanes as his “back-channel” negotiator. Trillanes, whose political confreres are now denouncing China, made several secret engagements with his Chinese counterpart. Then Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile denounced Trillanes for undermining the Philippines’ position.

That backdrop in the Scarborough conflict should not be conveniently deleted to pursue the political dramatics which we are being fed daily these days.

As corollary information, Scarborough is a very rich traditional fishing ground of Filipino fishermen, among others. As a result of the tensions that followed, our fishermen were deprived of fishing in the area.

Enter the presidency of Rodrigo R. Duterte. Based on sense and sensibility over the conflict with China, Duterte opted to engage China via bilateral talks. As commander in chief of the AFP, he declared that he did not want to waste a single life of his soldiers over a war that we can never win. He wasted no time and flew to Beijing, where a red-carpet reception was rolled out to welcome him. Peace and starving fishermen in mind, he reached an agreement with President Xi, leading to the resumption of fishing by our fisherfolk.

The gains in those bilateral talks cannot be belittled. In Metro Manila, two bridges were built in strategic places across the Pasig River. In Davao City, China constructed the Bucana Bridge, which was recently opened to traffic. The vital bridges were all grants from China. 

What will be the longest bridge in the country, spanning Davao City and Samal Island, is funded by China’s Official Development Assistance with an annual 2 percent interest rate, payable in 20 years with a grace period of seven years. The bridge, which is now 46 percent accomplished, is being constructed by China Roads and Bridges Co.

China haters want to bury these facts, including the supply of personal protective equipment and Sinovac vaccines at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Amboy Dick Gordon and ex-Sen. Manny Pacquiao charged the Duterte government with overpricing the PPEs and corruption, but to their chagrin, it was later discovered that it was in fact less than 50 percent of what the Aquino administration had earlier purchased. In an attempt to cover their shame, they harped on the issue that the provider of the PPEs is a firm with only P650,000 capitalization.

But neither the wise man Gordon nor the pugilist Pacman can name or suggest any alternative companies from which to buy the supplies. The United States and the UK had imposed an embargo on their PPEs and vaccines. On the other hand, China not only allocated sufficient volumes of vaccines and PPEs, it delivered to the Philippines millions of vaccine doses for free.

Before Duterte assumed the presidency, the burgeoning banana industry in the Philippines lost the lucrative market in Japan, which imposed a very high tariff on bananas. A few weeks after Duterte’s assumption, China absorbed every hand of Cavendish bananas that the country could sell. Today, under the saber-rattling Marcos administration, banana exporters have lost their markets in China and have been in search of scarce buyers. Already, this has resulted in the closure of one of the biggest banana growers and employers of farm laborers in the country.

All through the six years of Duterte’s leadership, we never encountered a situation like what the Philippines and China are facing today. We have lost all the fruits and goodwill that were derived from the foreign affairs policy of the Duterte administration through sheer arrogance and the oratories of political characters who drown us in empty rhetoric, all because they want to be reelected and even vie to be president.

We have a crop of imbeciles in both chambers of Congress who are not aware of the economic, political and technical relevance of China and the implications of their suggestion to cut ties with the country. Imagine the impact. Hundreds of thousands of documented and undocumented overseas Filipinos will lose their jobs and remittances. The blockheads might even be thinking that Hong Kong and Macau are not part of China. The Philippines will be deprived of China’s technological advancement in renewable energy, hybrid vehicles, agricultural technology and supplies, tourists, cheap loans and the biggest consumer market sought by advanced economies the world over, to name a few.