Philippine foreign policy master plan

Paris, France – Arriving in Paris early morning of Thursday from Manila via Abu Dhabi, I was pleasantly surprised to see the Charles de Gaulle Airport well secured and manned by welcoming French airport officials. France has been a victim of major terrorists attacks lately and I expected it to be like a garrison state. Somehow, the French have mastered the art of doing a low key but effective way of handling security.

After going through the usual airport formalities, I was met by our Filipino driver, Ernesto, who has been living in France for over 22 years. Comparing it to Manila, traffic in Paris according to our driver has become quite heavy because of the tremendous increase in the number of cars coming into the city everyday. It usually takes approximately 50 minutes from the airport to downtown Paris but nowadays, it takes an average early morning commute travel time of about one hour and 20 minutes.

I asked our driver about the city’s security and he said he feels much safer in Paris than in Manila. Inevitably, the conversation turned to the Philippines. Many Filipino OFWs according to him are scared about what’s going on in the Philippines today. A recent report said an OFW who went home for vacation from Saudi Arabia was brutally murdered – allegedly by the police after being tagged as a drug pusher. The case is currently being investigated. Stories like this are reverberating all over Europe, along with the controversial statements made by President Duterte against the European Union regarding extra judicial killings. But the latest controversial statement by President Duterte likening himself to Hitler has hit front-page news all over Europe – eliciting condemnation from the Jewish community.

Paris continues to draw attention specially since it is where the historic UN pact on climate change – also known as the Paris Agreement – was forged, with 195 countries (including the Philippines) agreeing last year to lessen their carbon emissions. This was the same pact that President Rodrigo Duterte described as “stupid.” Duterte called out what he termed as the “hypocrisy” of industrialized nations, saying they achieved progress at the expense of the planet since they did so without limiting their carbon footprint – but now want to control the progress of developing countries like the Philippines.

People close to the president say he has an unpredictable, out-of-the-box kind of thinking and a perspective that is rather different from the way others would usually perceive an issue. His recent pronouncement wanting to pursue an independent foreign policy and open up new alliances with China and Russia has created ripples of concern that could impact relations with the United States – our country’s closest ally.

The US State Department however said they see nothing wrong with the Philippines seeking new alliances since, after all, it is a sovereign nation. The United States is confident that the alliance between our two countries, which started 70 years ago, will endure, having been built on shared sacrifices for democracy and strong people-to-people ties. The Duterte administration has clarified that it will maintain the alliance with the US and honor the Mutual Defense Treaty, but will establish new alliances primarily for trade and commerce.

There is no question the country should pursue an independent foreign policy, which is enshrined in the 1987 Constitution. Filipinos also understand that we should be able to chart our own destiny without being too dependent on other countries, but that does not mean we should shun relations with them because in this new global world, nations have no choice but to work together on issues of mutual concern such as transnational crimes like drug trafficking and terrorism.

“We must revisit this… In foreign affairs you try to get as many friends as possible. You don’t get one friend at the expense of another,” Albert del Rosario pointed out. Everyone knows the former Foreign Secretary – a person I truly admire for the good work he has done – is responsible for strengthening our relationship with the US and the main driving force in elevating our maritime case to the arbitration court, believing it is the only way to move forward. Like many of us including Duterte followers, Albert del Rosario also loves this country and would like to see it in a place of honor within the international community.

It is clear, going by the pronouncements of the president – people would still like to believe his main objective is to bring the country to a new era of peace where the drug problem and criminality have been eradicated. The president said he wants to save the next generation from perdition. On many occasions, he had told a few trusted people that he does not want the country destroyed by drugs, and at the same time also wants to leave a legacy of peace with the National Democratic Front, the Communist Party, the MNLF, MILF and other groups that have been engaged in decades of conflict with the government.

The president most likely believes that being too tied in with the United States will make it difficult to bring on the legacy of peace that he wants to achieve – and this is evident when he said, “…we will never have peace in [Mindanao] for as long as we stay with America.”

Let’s just say the president’s recent moves and statements are part of his plan to position the country into a situation where we can say that we are “friends with everyone.” Foreign Secretary Jun Yasay tells me that this is precisely the overall foreign policy master plan of the president. Let’s hope it succeeds.

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