President Duterte's first year in foreign relations
In his first year in office, it is important to assess President Rodrigo Duterte's performance in foreign relations.
In less than twelve months, he has visited and conferred with 24 heads of states, heads of governments, including presidents, prime ministers, kings, emperors, and other monarchs and titular heads of nations. He broke tradition by distancing himself from USA and the NATO-aligned nations, and focused on building bridges with ASEAN members-states, and then China, Russia, Japan, and, of course, the Middle East, host to two million OFWs. This is a new pattern in Philippine foreign policy: befriend nearer geographic neighbors before crossing to America and Europe. There are three pillars of Philippine diplomacy; political and national security, economy and trade, and now, what matters most is OFW protection. Duterte went to 17 countries, covering almost 78,000 miles, flying out and back no less than 21 times. Not bad for a 72-year-old.
Duterte met and conferred with Singapore Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong and President Tony Tan. Singapore is an important ASEAN partner and hosts more than 200,000 OFWs, 100,000 of whom are household service workers. The rest are nurses, doctors, accountants, engineers, IT technicians, storekeepers and teachers. The Flor Contemplacion/Delia Maga episode marked the darkest moments in our relations with Singapore. But it remains as the site of some of the best employers of our workers. Duterte also conferred with Tun Datuk Sri Najib Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia, one of the best destinations for OFWs, except that we have problems in the Sabah and Sarawak states. I was a labor diplomat to Malaysia for three years, and visited all states, major islands and cities. I unified all the Filipino communities and built a weekend school for OFWs there.
Perhaps, the best friend of Duterte in ASEAN is President Joko Widodo. They share many things in common, especially the fight against drugs. Duterte also conferred with Thailand Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha; also Vietnam President Tranh Dai Quang, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc and its Communist Party Secgen Nguyen Phu Throng. He met with Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni and PM Hun Sen, Myanmar's President U Htin Kyaw, and its democracy icon, State counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.
Of course, Duterte conferred with China's Premier Li Kequiang and President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japan's PM Shinzo Abe. In the Middle East, Duterte met with Saudi Arabia's King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud and Crown Prince Mohhamed Bin Salman. He met the Emir of Qatar Sheik Tanim Bin hamad al Thani, and prince of Bahrain Salman Bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. These countries, in addition to Kuwait, Oman, and the UAE host no less than two million Filipino workers, mostly in the oil industries, medical services, engineering, education, and domestic household services.
As a former Labor attaché and DOLE undersecretary, I give Duterte a rating of 85 in political diplomacy and 87 in economic diplomacy. But in protection to OFWs, he gets a 95 from me. As overall chief foreign policy architect, I give him 89. Not bad for a freshman septuagenarian president. Keep it up, Manoy Digong. Don't be affected by the bashers, and show them what sterner stuff we from the south are made of.
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