FA L S E PROMISES PHILIPPINE COLLEGIAN 95
EDITORIAL
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It is clear that the administration is still all too keen to the illusions of progress under Chinese auspices, despite years of colonial practices and imperialism that only stunted the nation’s development.
GIVE A MAN A FISH, HE WILL EAT for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he will receive noodles from China. This is not a proverb nor a joke, but a reality faced by Filipino fishermen. In exchange for noodles and cigarettes, Chinese coast guard personnel confiscated the catch of our fisherfolk in Panatag Shoal. China has been occupying the shoal since April 2012, when Beijing surveillance ships prevented the Philippine Navy from arresting Chinese poachers who had harvested endangered marine species. No less than President Rodrigo Duterte emboldens the Chinese to violate the rights and freedom of Filipino fishers to sail in our traditional fishing grounds. His defeatist stand on the sea row proves his subservience to China, even jesting that the Philippines should be a province of the economic giant. Such rash banter negates our country’s diplomatic attempts to assert sovereignty over the contested area. In 2016, the United Nations Arbitral Tribunal ruled that the Philippines has exclusive sovereign rights over the West Philippine Sea. Yet, China’s incursion into Philippine territorial waters continues, as the Duterte administration keeps silent on the maritime dispute in exchange for supposed Chinese trade concessions, aid, and investment. China has even pledged $15 million to support President Duterte’s bloody war on drugs. Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez also said that foreign aid from China amounted to around $9 billion, while its private commercial deals with the Philippines amounted to around $15 billion. The catch: Duterte’s bias for China, at the expense of the Filipino people. Consequently, the economic giant has benefitted more from its trade with the Philippines—our country has only earned $6.4 billion from exports, while it had to pay $15.6 billion in imports from China in 2016. The $9.2 billion trade deficit puts the
Philippines at a disadvantage, particularly our iron and steel companies, which had to stop their manufacturing operations because of competing Chinese companies subsidized by their government. This trade imbalance also occurs in China-Africa relations, dubbed as new colonialism, where China finances Africa through foreign aid in exchange for the exploitation of its natural resources. The Philippines likewise cannot expect China to hold good its promises of large investment, as the latter’s actual pledge in many cases was up to five times larger than what it actually delivered. Filipinos have had enough of false promises—both from China and President Duterte. Yet, it is clear that the administration is still all too keen to the illusions of progress under Chinese auspices, despite years of colonial practices and imperialism that only stunted the nation’s development. This condition thus imparts a lesson to the Philippines: it is teaching a nation to fight and it will regain its sovereignty. The country has been able to win its arbitration case, and therefore has the means to file a diplomatic protest over China’s incursion into Philippines territorial waters. The only stumbling block to win this battle is the Duterte administration—a government in collusion with China in killing poor Filipinos with the war on drugs, a president in cahoots with another strongman in curtailing a nation’s freedom and democracy. It is thus the people who are capable of breaking free from false promises and face the reality. When Chinese men have the gall to search and seize the catch of Filipino fishers in Philippine waters, that is control. When there is Chinese presence and occupation in Panatag Shoal, that is occupation. The Duterte administration may say otherwise, but the Filipino people won’t be played like a fool.