Excluded...

Wu said the consistent preference, according to the surveys, is to maintain the status quo, rejecting Beijing’s condition that Taipei must accept a “one country, two systems” model of unification.

“To us, we are not run by China. And the status quo is that Taiwan is an autonomous state. Taiwan runs by itself,” Wu told me. “We have a president, publicly elected. We have a parliament, publicly elected as well, and we have a Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we have a Ministry of National Defense, and we even have an independent currency note, which is the New Taiwan dollar. And therefore, Taiwan is not part of the PROC. This is obvious to everybody.”

If you need a visa to enter a particular place on this planet, it is generally deemed to be a country.

“We understand the subtlety and the problems associated with the Chinese claim of Taiwan. And we don’t want to be a provocateur. We don’t want to offend anyone. We don’t want to cause any conflict in this region,” Wu said. “But… we want to safeguard the current status quo, which is in the best interest of all parties concerned.”

For years, the international community recognized the government led by Chiang Kaishek that relocated to Taiwan in 1949 as the legitimate government of China.

It says a lot about what drives geopolitics that on Oct. 25, 1971, the United Nations General Assembly withdrew its recognition of the Republic of China, a.k.a. Taiwan, and recognized the People’s Republic of China as the only legitimate representative of China to the UN.

When it comes to civil wars and other internal conflicts, it’s probably too complicated to make ideology drive acceptance by the international community. Instead, whoever emerges as the victor gets official recognition. Even Afghanistan under the Taliban remains a UN member.

Democracy? Human rights? Tell that to the people of Hong Kong, the model for China’s one-country, two systems policy that it wants to impose on Taiwan.

You’d think democracies, with all the preaching about universal human rights, would take a firmer stand based on ideology in this issue. Instead democracies seem happy to engage with authoritarian China (especially if their economies benefit from it) and ignore democratic Taiwan.

Also, size matters, and possession is ninetenths of the law. Between the 1.2 million Chinese who fled to Taiwan in 1949 and the nearly 542 million who didn’t, plus the sheer land area of the mainland, I guess the UN didn’t think twice about kicking out Taiwan and recognizing the one-China policy. * * *

To this day, Taiwan cannot even get observer status in the UN or, crucially during the SARS outbreak and COVID pandemic, in the World Health Organization.

WHO exclusion deprived Taiwan of access to critical information when severe acute respiratory syndrome broke out in China’s Guangdong province in November 2002 and jumped overseas, raging through 2003. Taiwan suffered the highest death toll from SARS, with 181 lives lost.

But the hard lessons the Taiwanese learned from SARS are widely seen as the reason why Taiwan had one of the best preventive responses when COVID-19 leapt out of the Chinese city of Wuhan and spread sickness, death and economic devastation across the planet.

Being treated almost like an international pariah has also given the Taiwanese a strong sense of national unity and drive to achieve. It is classified by the World Bank as a highincome economy, with its GDP per capita hitting U.S.$33,011 as of 2021 (it was $3,461 for the Philippines).

Last year, Taiwan ranked sixth among 184 economies in The Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom, and 15th among 190 as of December 2020 in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings. Among 63 economies assessed last year, Taiwan placed seventh in the World Competitiveness Yearbook.

Its open society is reflected in its ranking in the 2022 World Press Freedom Index – 38th among 180 countries and territories, with the Philippines ranking 147th and China 175th (Hong Kong plummeted from 68th to 148th). Unfortunately for democratic, prosperous Taiwan, if it suffers the same fate as Hong Kong, the world will likely just look away. * * *

CORRECTION: Due to travel rush, I inadvertently sent the unedited version of my previous column from Taiwan. My apologies. This portion should have read:

The media congress tends to pick venues with press freedom issues, such as Moscow in 2006 and South Africa under the controversial Jacob Zuma.

In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin was the keynote speaker. He made a show of being tolerant of dissent at the time, looking unfazed... (Philstar.com) experience is dry season next year when water saved during this rainy season runs out. We’ll have shortage next year during the dry season,” Cuyanan said in Filipino.

PAGASA clarified that its El Niño advisory is based on three-month average of sea surface temperature anomalies of above 0.5 degree Celsius.

Angat level

Water level of Angat Dam, meanwhile, has further dropped to near critical level but water concessionaires assured the public of continued water service.

Latest PAGASA monitoring showed Angat’s water level at 181.53 meters as of 8 a.m. Tuesday, July 4, 0.36 meters lower than 181.93 meters a day earlier and only 1.57 meters from the critical level of 180 meters.

Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) division manager Patrick Dizon said they would meet with PAGASA, the National Water Resources Board (NWRB) and the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) to discuss the problem.

“Under the Angat Dam protocol, when the reservoir elevation reaches 180 meters, the water allocation of irrigation will be reduced to prioritize domestic water supply,” he said.

“We are going to see PAGASA’s projection of rainfall in watershed areas, if there will be intense rain to help raise the elevation of the reservoir,” Dizon said.

The MWSS has yet to determine the amount of water allocation it will request from the NWRB.

“For now, we can’t say what level of raw water allocation we will ask because we need to manage the current water levels in the Angat reservoir,” Dizon said.

West zone concessionaire Maynilad Water Services Inc. said it has a program in place to mitigate the

“This involves the production of additional supply through alternative raw water sources, and through water loss recovery from our pipe replacement and leak repair activities,” Maynilad corporate communications head Jennifer Rufo said.

“As we work closely with MWSS to augment available supplies, we call on all water consumers to help by using water responsibility,” Rufo said.

Currently, Maynilad is still assessing the actual impact of the reduction of Angat water allocation to 50 cubic meters per second (CMS) on its service levels this month.

“Having said that, even if a 50 CMS allocation will have an impact on service levels this July, the water situation would be better now compared to how it was last April 1 to 15 when the allocation was also at 50 CMS and there were service interruptions,” Rufo said.

“This is because we now have rains over the watersheds, and our various supply augmentation projects (i.e., reactivation of deep wells, recovery of water losses and production of potable reused water) have already been generating additional supply,” the Maynilad official said.

East zone concessionaire Manila Water Company Inc. said it has been preparing its supply augmentation measures long before the official declaration of El Niño’s onset.

Part of the measures is drawing 110 million liters per day (MLD) from Laguna Lake through its Cardona Water Treatment Plant, Manila Water corporate communication affairs group director Jeric Sevilla said.

Manila Water is also tapping deep wells, which are ready to supply up to a maximum of 115 MLD.

“We have also completed Phase 1 of our Calawis Project in Antipolo which will give around 20 MLD and scalable up to 80 MLD while Phase 2 of our East Bay Water Supply Project which can provide 50 MLD drawing water from the eastern flank of Laguna Lake. 15 MLD from our Marikina Portable Treatment Plant is also available,” Sevilla said.

“We will continue and even intensify our preparations to help ensure that our customers will continue to enjoy 24/7 water supply with pressure within regulatory limits even during El Niño,” Manila Water Corporate communications head Dittie Galang said.

Food supply

At a press briefing, DA director for Field Operations Service U-Nichols Manalo said they have prepared a whole-of-government approach in dealing with El Niño in compliance with President Marcos’ directive.

“The president made the instruction of a whole of government approach, science based, we’re preparing for it. We should not respond only when the problem is already here in December and January or when there is already drought in 26 provinces,” Manalo said at a briefing.

The DA is the lead agency in the food security group under the national El Niño team, composed of different government agencies.

Manalo said that they are also coordinating with local government units, irrigation associations and rice farmers in preparation for the El Niño.

He noted that some areas in Davao del Sur experiencing below average rainfall have started planting their crops earlier to adjust to changing weather conditions.

The DA official said the NIA has also started repairs and maintenance of its irrigation systems.

The DA is also part of the water and health security groups, through its attached agencies and bureaus like NIA and the Bureau of Animal Industry. n