Major 2028 issue
He may not know it but this early Pacquiao just landed a bone-crunching left hook on any 2028 presidential candidate suspected of false allegiances.
Text size
Daily Tribune
He may not know it but this early Pacquiao just landed a bone-crunching left hook on any 2028 presidential candidate suspected of false allegiances.
Boxing icon Manny Pacquiao recently uttered the words “medyo traydor” (somewhat a traitor) in inviting China-sympathizing Filipinos to visit strategically vital Pag-asa Island in the hotly contested Spratly Islands.
And, Pacquiao certainly meant Filipinos with his “medyo traydor” remark since it came after seeing Chinese ships loitering around Pag-Asa Island: “Naiinsulto tayo, kasi in our territory, nandiyan sila. Parang nabu-bully tayo. Doon sa mga Pilipino na medyo traydor, dapat pumunta tayo dito para what it’s like. (It’s insulting that they are in our territory. It seems they are bullying us. To those Filipinos who are slightly traitorous, you should visit here and experience what it’s like).”
He may not know it but this early Pacquiao just landed a bone-crunching left hook on any 2028 presidential candidate suspected of false allegiances.
Pacquiao didn’t name these medyo traitors, though some thought he was referring to prominent figures identified with the China-sympathizing Duterte camp.
And he managed to convey, especially with his qualifying medyo, that these people were characteristically “casual traitors” and that their casual disloyalties could be seen by their non-visits to Pag-asa Island, now developed by the defense establishment into a viable defensive frontline.
Moreover, by suggesting that a candidate take an early stand on China and the tensions in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), Pacquiao set an early tone to the forthcoming elections.
Defense Secretary Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro certainly likes it. Teodoro strongly maintains that China’s abusive incursions in the WPS must bookmark the 2028 elections.
Teodoro also expressly warned last week that an elected administration overly or subtly sympathetic to China in 2028 could spoil Philippine efforts to protect its interests in the WPS.
Similarly, Malacañang warned Filipinos against electing a president who could be a “Manchurian candidate” or “a leader controlled by a foreign country.”
In light of all this, it’s undoubtedly clear the WPS should be one of the defining issues in the forthcoming elections.
Teodoro and Pacquiao are correct in demanding that a presidential candidate henceforth should clearly state his or her position on the WPS.
This, not only because political leaders by clearly stating their stand now on the WPS would essentially prevent the betrayal of the country’s WPS interests, but it would also blunt ongoing sinister “foreign malign influence” operations which are fast turning hapless ordinary voters into “casual traitors” too.
That’s no harmless development. The enormous damage done to a country by millions of voters turned “casual traitors” is far more horrific to imagine than a couple of political leaders disguising their being “casual traitors” as a diplomatic nicety.
In fact, security officials say such treacherous “street level” influence operations spiked in the early part of this year. This in addition to higher numbers of coordinated online accounts pushing fake news designed primarily to turn Filipinos against each other and shape perceptions to favor a foreign power’s maritime claims.
Notably, these WPS-related “street level” operations make ingenious use of local languages and dialects since it makes foreign-sponsored malign messages harder to detect, says the military’s spokesperson on the WPS, reservist Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad.
Security officials also flagged the conspicuous suspicious exploits of divisive domestic political issues to effortlessly divert the public’s attention away from what is really happening at the WPS.
Given all these secretive efforts bombarding the WPS issue, all the more therefore is there a need to make it an early major electoral issue.
The Commission on Audit (CoA) has “affirmed with finality” its P73.28-million disallowance of confidential funds spent…
Car company Tesla has rolled out its autonomous taxi in Austin, Texas, USA.
First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos joined members of the Philippine Constitution Association (PhilConsa) in celebrating its…