Circumspection

When Britain voted to leave the European Union, there were quick assurances that there would be minimal impact on the Philippine economy.

But the main concern in the Philippines was the fate of over 200,000 Filipinos working in the United Kingdom, whose employment and mobility around the EU states might be affected once Brexit becomes final.

The Filipinos need not worry, UK Ambassador Asif Ahmad reassured me the other night, during an interfaith reception he hosted at his official residence.

We’ll know more about the fate of our compatriots in the UK when the ambassador returns from a gathering of Britain’s envoys from around the world, to be held next week in London. The meeting, Ambassador Ahmad told me, was scheduled precisely after the Brexit vote, so UK’s diplomatic corps can get guidance on their foreign policy post-Brexit.

The Philippine reaction to the vote is a reminder to the incoming Duterte administration that events whether major or seemingly insignificant all over the world affect our country’s 10 million migrant workers, giving urgency to maintaining healthy relations with the international community.

We’re also competing with fiercely competitive neighbors for foreign direct investments to create much needed jobs. And we still need a lot of help from the international community for many things including disaster mitigation, poverty alleviation, the peace process and national security.

Duterte can’t keep invoking his probinsyano roots for intemperate remarks. He needs an adviser on hand when he faces representatives of foreign governments or when making statements about other countries. The mayor of Davao can get away with picking a fight with foreign governments, but the president of the republic needs to be circumspect.

Certain ambassadors who have been in Duterte’s crosshairs since the campaign have not engaged him in a word war, probably waiting for the promised metamorphosis from worm to butterfly.

We’re all waiting for that change to materialize.

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On the way to the promised metamorphosis, someone might want to caution the president-elect on his regular reference to Mexico as a “narco-state.”

Mexico warrants special mention because its companies’ combined investments in the Philippines – at $6 billion last year – are the largest among all countries. The figure is also the largest for Mexico in all of Asia including China, according to Mexican Ambassador Julio Camarena.

The envoy has been trying to boost bilateral ties, and winces each time Duterte refers to Mexico as a narco-state – something the president-elect again did the other day during his final flag-raising ceremony as Davao City mayor.

I told Camarena the other night that Duterte probably just wants a reference point for explaining his tough stance against drugs. With Colombia making significant gains in its war on cocaine traffickers, attention has shifted to drug violence in Mexico.

But Mexican officials don’t refer to the Philippines as an ISIS-influenced state where foreigners are beheaded, Camarena said. What the Mexicans are doing instead is negotiating an air agreement to boost bilateral tourism, plus a free trade agreement that will among others give Philippine-made products access not only to the Mexican market but also to North and South American states with which Mexico has free trade deals.

In Colombia recently, Mexican and other Latin American journalists said that indeed drug violence has gone down in several hotspots in Mexico, notably Juarez, once rated as the world’s most violent city. The drug problem persists, of course, fueled by sustained strong demand from Mexico’s northern neighbor and the largest consumer of prohibited drugs, the United States.

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Ambassador Macarena prefers to focus on the positive aspects, hoping to revive close bilateral ties that go back to the days of the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade.

Do we know, for example, that apart from avocados, chili and cacao, the Mexicans brought pigs to the Philippines? The roasting we probably learned from the Spaniards and their cochinillo, but you need a hog to make lechon, so we have the Mexicans to thank for this.

For their part, the Mexicans acknowledge that we gave them their sweet “mango de Manila” and coconuts. Filipino sailors on the galleons fermented wine from coconut. From this process, Macarena said, Mexicans learned to make tequila out of agave.

Macarena is a tequila connoisseur, and has an aspin (asong Pinoy) he picked up when she was a stray puppy along the highway in Tagaytay. The puppy has grown into a lovely aspin-retriever mix that the ambassador has named Tequila.

The Mexicans may have to push for some amendments in our history books, to include details about Mexico’s role in Philippine history. Most of the Spaniards who governed the Philippines first sailed to “New Spain” – the colonial name of Mexico – before proceeding to Manila, Camarena said. The first governor-general, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, was civil governor of Mexico City before he sailed to Manila. Another governor-general was mayor of Guadalajara.

Mexican pesos, not Spanish pesetas, subsidized Philippine colonial operations and the galleon trade, Macarena said. When Mexico revolted against Spain and gained independence in 1821, the funding began drying up and the galleon trade eventually ended. Decades later, as we know, Spain ceded the Philippines to the new imperial power, the United States, for $20 million.

Those details will be highlighted when the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade exhibit opens at the SM Mall of Asia, tentatively in February next year.

Macarena wants to highlight positive bilateral activities. Among them: an effort to cross-breed giant Mexican garlic with the pungent Ilocos variety.

The project is supported by Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos, whose family, as we all know, has a special place in the heart of Rodrigo Duterte. Perhaps improved bilateral ties can start from there.

And perhaps the Mexicans’ sentiments will inspire prudence on the part of the incoming administration when it comes to foreign relations.