Win some, lose some for China president Xi Jinping. The trouncing of his bet in Taiwan’s presidential election Jan. upset him. Against Beijing pressures, a record 60 percent of the vote reelected pro-independence Tsai Ing-wen. But Xi must have grinned the next week when, in Manila a few hundred miles south, President Rody Duterte threatened to scrap the Visiting Forces Agreement with America unless his favorite senator-general’s cancelled US visa was restored within a month. More pleasing for Xi, before that deadline Duterte did order his aides formally to end the VFA. Good timing too. Beijing had just begun a ten-year fishing ban in the mighty Yangtze river. About 180,000 boats will be destroyed or diverted to the nearest alternative, the West Philippine Sea. US naval presence there, especially for joint exercises with the Philippines, deters Beijing’s full militarization of the waters. But with the US out of the way, it can now assert control. Expect more Chinese fisheries militia launches to poach in Philippine territorial waters and 200-mile exclusive economic zone.
“What is unfolding before us is a national tragedy,” former foreign secretary Albert del Rosario remarked Friday before the Stratbase ADR Institute. “As a democratic and republican country, we do not believe that one man alone can make this damaging choice for our people. We appeal to our esteemed institutions such as Congress and the Supreme Court to help us resist this tragedy. We appeal to the conscience of our military whose duty under the Constitution is to defend the integrity of our national territory.”
Malacañang often says the President is the principal architect of foreign policy. But he’s not the sole architect, senators always hasten to add. The Charter requires two-thirds Senate concurrence with any international treaty forged by the Executive. In the same vein, majority of senators believe they also have a say in treaty abrogation. Last year they asked the SC to void, because unapproved by the Senate, Duterte’s departure from the International Criminal Court. Last week they added to that case Duterte’s unilateral rescission of the VFA.
Even before any SC ruling, retired senior justice Antonio Carpio said Duterte’s ultimate aim is to end not just the VFA but also the Phl-US Mutual Defense Treaty of 1951 and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement of 2014. “Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo already intimated this,” he said in the same forum. “He said to be consistent with his stand, then all treaties must go.”
The VFA merely clarifies visa and criminal jurisdiction over US servicemen participating in joint exercises. The EDCA states the venues and military facilities to be used. The mother MDT commits America and the Philippines to defend each other in invasion or attack by a third party. In 1951 that unnamed third party generally referred to China, ran over by Communists two years prior.
Duterte had intended to scrap the MDT since his first visit to Beijing in 2016, Carpio recalled. Duterte pledged undying friendship then to President Xi, while declaring a break from America.
Filipino critics say Manila hardly benefits from the MDT and VFA in terms of war materiel. But Profs. Renato de Castro and Richard Heydarian differentiated between arms assistance and defense alliance. The former consists of transfer of weaponry with or without defense aid. The latter is a standby commitment militarily to mobilize for each other.
China continues to occupy Scarborough Shoal, 120 miles off Zambales, menacing poor Filipinos from their traditional fishing ground and ruining the maritime environment. Del Rosario has sought ICC investigation of Xi for crimes against humanity.
Scarborough is at the mouth of Subic Bay, a natural safe harbor since the Spanish times. There, where US warships used to base, the Philippine Navy is to build a shipyard. Without the VFA, and soon EDCA and MDT too, all the more China will stay in Scarborough and choke Filipino defenses. That, in defiance of The Hague ruling that it is in violation of Philippine sovereignty.
The Philippines can hardly defend its fisheries against Chinese poaching. What more defend its territory.
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The COVID-19 travel bans are of unproved effectiveness. Filipinos cannot be barred from returning from overseas work or tour. Inbound foreigners can conceal or forget visits to outbreak areas. Parliamentarians and other diplomatic passport holders are exempt. International tourists are only discriminated, like the Chinese and Koreans. Local lockdowns, meanwhile, shrink tourism incomes of big and small entrepreneurs, and public offices. Thus Benguet municipalities lifted within two weeks the tourist lockouts they had imposed. At best the bans give a false sense of security from disease, as human carriers freely can come and go.
Best for authorities to keep people fully informed and cooperative with hygiene, sanitation, and quarantines. Never promise to contain the virus, like the fatal mistake of cocky Iranian health officials who got sick.
Best too to prepare for the worst. By now provincial and city governments, and public and private hospitals should be drilling in emergencies and contingencies. Stockpiling on essential medicines and materials is basic. Facilities and outlets that cater to the public – malls, shops, restaurants, hotels, churches, police stations, government offices, schools, gyms, sports stadiums, banks, transport terminals, gas stations, etc. – must be kept clean. Sanitize door handles and knobs, elevator and intercom buttons, stair and escalator handrails, toilet flush levers, grocery carts especially child seats. Same with items frequently touched in dwellings and vehicles. COVID-19 attacks the lungs, usually via the nose and mouth, on touching contaminated objects. Making cleanliness and prevention a habit can save us also from seasonal flu, pneumonia, polio, cholera, dysentery, dengue, and other killer diseases.
It goes without saying that the only travel ban should be on criminals, especially Chinese kidnappers, money launderers, human traffickers, narco-traders – and fisheries poaching militiamen.
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