Are we really rejecting all EU aid?

To the eyes of the naive, the Philippines appears to be sending mixed signals to the European Union and the world. On the one hand President Duterte is declaring that, henceforth, our country shall not receive any aid from EU, on the other hand he also announced the appointment of former senator Edgardo Angara as a special envoy to the EU. To our mind, Duterte’s gambit is like a son-in-law telling his mother-in-law that he will not accept any help from her. And at the same time, he sends his wife as an emissary to the house of his in-laws. I do not call that duplicity. I call that a clever move in the game of chess. Duterte is a very good master of Sun Tzu’s Art of War.

Do you recall that while Mar Roxas, Grace Poe, and Jojo Binay were rushing their declaration to run, all the while that the really smart guy, Digong, opted to remain demure and coy, like a virgin, and holding his cards close to his heart. And so all demolition initiatives were directed at the three eager beavers. Most of the Filipinos almost took Duterte’s words that he would not run. Until some people shaved their heads just to pressure him (I have a feeling the shaving of the heads was even part of the choreography). Then the deadline came and he did not file, but a very close trustee filed, only to be substituted by the man from La Mancha, the Don Quixote, complete with his Sancho Panza. All the rest is history. If you still cannot decipher Duterte until now, you have a problem.

This posturing against the US also seems to be a part of a great zarzuela, to push the White House to give the Philippines more attention. This act of ‘’dancing with the dragon’’ or this pretended closeness to China is really designed to bring in more goodies from Donald Trump. And Duterte’s tactical moves in relation to Beijing are not really because he loves China more and the USA less. No, it is all about the president’s love for our country and people. In international politics, to paraphrase the politician, there are really no permanent friends or permanent enemies. There are only permanent interests, our own national interests. And those are what he has in mind.

The reason why Duterte has approved the Finance secretary’s recommendation not to accept aid or grants that may let the donor countries interfere with our internal policies is because he does not want EU telling us how to address our drug problems, dictating us on matters like the so-called summary executions and extra-judicial killings. The refusal to accept, however, does not cover humanitarian aid in times of calamities and disasters, if those do not carry any condition that impose the donors’ ways on our internal governance prerogatives, and powers as a sovereign state and people. This is an assertion of our national integrity and sovereignty. No country, EU or whatnot, has the right to tell us how to lead our people and manage our affairs.