Renewing trust

NINGXIA – Thanks to the wonders of information technology, we were able to monitor and watch from here the live streaming of the state of the nation address (SONA) of President Rodrigo Duterte last Monday. After all, it was the maiden SONA of the former Davao City Mayor before the joint opening sessions of the 17th Congress held at the Batasan Pambansa in Quezon City. 

We caught the first ten minutes of the SONA when we arrived at our hotel here after a three-hour flight from Shanghai. But before we could further listen to the President’s SONA, we have to cut short our live streaming because we have to attend to the official program of activities laid out here by our Chinese hosts. 

Actually, the program last Monday was the formal welcome rites of the official Philippine delegation for the sister-province partnership agreement between Palawan and the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. The actual formal signing rites here happened yesterday between the local governments of Palawan, headed by Governor Jose Alvarez with his Chinese counterpart Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region vice chairman Wang He-shan.

The sister-province partnership between Palawan and Ningxia Hui was made possible through the joint initiatives of Gov. Alvarez and former Philippine special envoy to China, Carlos Chan. They invited former Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Delia Albert to witness the event. It was Albert who strongly pushed people-to-people ties with China during her tenure from 2002 to 2004.

According to Alvarez, the idea of sister-partnership of the two provinces was born two years ago. On the second year of his first term as governor, Alvarez disclosed, he welcomed a delegation of local government officials and business leaders from Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region brought by ambassador Chan to visit Palawan, being one of the country’s top island tourist destinations.

Ningxia is one of the five autonomous regions in China and is among the densely populated provinces where an estimated six million Chinese Muslims-Hui live. According to our female Chinese guide from the local foreign ministry here, the Muslims-Hui represent 35% of the estimated total of 20 million ethnic Chinese Muslims all over China. Located in Central China, Ningxia Hui is a fast growing province that enjoys economic and trade contacts with Arab nations because of its ethnic Chinese Muslims.   

The Palawan Governor brought along in the historic signing of the sister province agreement Mayor Abraham Ibba of Bataraza who is one of the mayors of the 13 island municipalities of the province. Bataraza is a first-class municipality in the southern tip of Palawan. According to Mayor Ibba, Bataraza has around 80,000 population and about 20% of his constituents are Muslims like him.

Winning his re-election bid in the last May 9 elections, Gov.Alvarez pursued this sister partnership with Ningxia as part of his long-term plans to further develop the economic and tourism potentials of Palawan. He vowed to construct additional airports in each of his island municipalities during his second term. Thus, this early he declared he would most probably run again for a third and last term in office to complete his vision of more progressive Palawan in the nearest future.

At present, it has Puerto Princesa airport as its international gateway where 1.4 million of foreign tourists go to Palawan every year, he noted. But, he added, an average of more than four million domestic tourists also visit the province each year. So there is really an urgent need to build more local airports and ports to connect Palawan to the rest of the country and the world, he pointed out.

“We have two of the most popular international tourist attractions at Palawan, the World Heritage site of Underground River and the Tubbataha Reef,” Gov. Alvarez cited.

Known as one of the country’s most successful businessman in the auto sales industry before he turned to government service, Gov. Alvarez underscored the potential market from China alone to come to his province and visit as tourists and bring business and trade deals to spur economic growth both ways.

The Governor acknowledged the initiatives of ambassador Chan in helping him turn into reality his dreams for the people of Palawan through this sister partnership with Ningxia Hui. This is the sixth of a sister partnership agreements initiated by the special envoy of the Philippines to China in the past 10 years.

Chan, chairman emeritus of Liwayway Co. Ltd., was first appointed as special envoy of the Philippines to China in July 2006 by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. He was re-appointed by former President Benigno “Noy” Aquino III in August 2012.

Previously, ambassador Chan initiated and forged the sister partnership agreements between Bohol and Jiangxi provinces; Longhai-Zhangzhou and Gerona, Tarlac; Anhui and Cavite provinces; Huangguang City and Imus City in Cavite; and Carmona City in Cavite and Chachu City, all in China.

The latest sister province partnership agreement between Palawan and Ningxia Hui, however, was a most significant and timely development. It came two weeks after the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) at The Hague upheld the Philippine petition and invalidated Beijing’s nine-dash-line claims over the entire South China Sea.

It shows to the world the people-to-people, cultural and trade ties must and should continue to thrive despite the strained relations between the Philippines and China.

This was most especially relevant, as I stated before, to Palawan which is the Philippine province closest to the disputed overlapping maritime territorial claims in South China Sea. The Kalayaan Island Group, or Pag-asa is one of the 13 island municipalities of Palawan. The Philippines owns this biggest land area around the disputed islets at the Spratlys claimed not only by China but also by Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam and Taiwan.

Yet, the people of Palawan led the way to forge this sister province partnership agreement with Ningxia as the first step to restore the warm and friendly ties between our two countries. 

Such renewal of trust and faith at one another comes at an opportune time to start the healing process after The Hague ruling. It’s time to move on.