Last night we had a very enlightening discussion with my neighborhood barkada. They were anxious of the recent aggressive bullying acts of China in the West Philippine Seas. It caught their particular interest because they too are fisherfolks and certainly they sympathized and empathized with their Filipino compatriots who were driven away by the big Chinese seacrafts patrolling in the area believed to be within Philippine waters.
JIMMY: Klaro man kaayong pangbusabos tong gihimo sa mga Insek ba! [What the Chinese did was really a clear act of bullying!]
RENREN: May ra bag ilahang teritoryo nga sakop pa man to sa Pilipinas tong gipangisdaan sa mga Pinoy nga mananagat… di ba? [And those Filipino fishermen were in the seas that belong to the Philippines, weren’t they?]
PEDIO: Kon pasagdan na sila, nah! Kitang mga Pilipino mawad-an na hinoog katungod sa atong kaugalingong kadagatan? Kadakong binuang! [If that is allowed to prevail, gosh! We Filipinos will be disenfranchised in our seas? What a big folly!]
LITO: Alaot gyud ta, kay unsaong wa man tay ikasukol. Bisag kinsa lay moyatak nato! Busa, karon si President Noynoy nanawag nag pakitabang. Aw, andam man sab ang Amerika nga motabang, karaan gud nato nang kaalyado. Unsay tan-aw nimo Bay Don? Okey ba ning gihimo ni Noynoy? [We’re really helpless because we have nothing for a counter move. Any one can just bully us! So, President Noynoy is now calling for help. Well, our old ally America is always ready to help. What do you think, Bay Don? Is that okey — what Noynoy is doing?]
RENREN: Luoya sad sa atong nasod oy! Murag batang gamay nga gi-ilogag kendi! Way mahimo kundi motiyabawg hilak ! Hahahaha! [How pathetic our country is! It’s like a little child robbed of its candy! All it does is cry and cry and cry ! Hahahaha!]
MYSELF: Exactly! Our country’s leadership is really a cry baby! But this is not anything new. Our government has been a cry baby since the birth of our republic. Our first uha was when we were granted a bogus independence by the US in July 1946. As a nurseling we were a republic that could not stand by itself.
Economically, politically and culturally we were tethered—or we can use the euphemistic term “controlled”— by the US. And their control made them freely explore, exploit and utilize our natural resources for their own enrichment. We were made to barely survive. Just to barely survive.
Politically? Oh, President Manuel A. Roxas was an excellent puppet of the US. And his legacy was a challenge for all the subsequent Presidents to surpass his puppetry! Our foreign policy, in fact, has been like an extension of American foreign policy. Whatever the US wants our country’s leadership to do is followed most faithfully. The US commanded, “Send troops to the Korean War!” And the Philippine President promptly sent the 10th BCT to fight alongside the American sokdiers in the Korean War.
Then the US commanded again, “Send Filipino soldiers to Vietnam!” Did we not send our best Filipino fighters under the monicker PHILCAG? Yes, we did! Some our soldiers might have been involved in the infamous My Lai Massacre?
Wherever the US wages war of interventionism to advance its imperialist interests, we are invariably requested to be there also. No Philippine President can ever refuses US “requests”.
And through all these years that our combatants have been assisting the US interventionist wars in other countries, what have we learned? Certainly we have excelled in the art of puppetry and unconditional obeisance to US whims and caprices. Our leaders, bright boys as they are, have illustriously exercised acts of State that proved to be inimical to the Filipino people’s interest, but extremely beneficial in advancing the US interests. For all our extraordinary feats in defending US imperialist interests, we have not developed the capability to defend our own country in face of military threats from other countries!
Our government leaders and cry when bullied by China? Hear President Noynoy and Secretary Gazmin cry! Hear also the ‘brave’ General Catapang! You’ll certainly be amused by the pitch of their crying voices! But these cry babies do bully our own people! Our military men are bullying the Lumads in the countryside. They are bullying Filipinos who are asserting their human rights!
But! For all their cry and cry for help, is the US that ready to help us protect our own country’s interests? Are the VFA and EDCA — vaunted as defense cooperation agreements — really dependable instruments [or weapons, we might say] for our benefit? Is this an agreement between equals?— meaning, the stipulations are so crafted in a manner that benefits and privileges accrue equitably to both parties?
In the first place, there is already a patent violation of our country’s sovereign rights! Do we have a parallel right of sovereignty over an inch of American territory by any of these wondrous agreements? We have everything to doubt that it will redound to our interest as a republic and as a people. Our government allows basing rights of American troops on our soil!— something that has been junked as an immoral and illegal phenomenon by our illustrious and nationalist legislators in the1990s when they abolished the US Military Bases in Subic and Clark
Secondly, the deployment of American troops in the Asia-Pacific region is not a strategy of defense in behalf of Philippine sovereignty. It is the implementation of a militaristic strategy of ”Rebalance of Power“ that the US has long charted in its drawing board to maintain its military might and advance its economic goals in this part of the globe, And because our leaders are either stupid as unthinking puppets our government has fallen prey to the US militaristic intentions.
Once upon a time — or say in the 1940s—our lands were made battlegrounds in a war not of our own making. It was a war between imperialist powers. And we as a nation and people were to absorb its tragic consequences. The present-day imperialist powers are again playing their favorite war game — a scramble for the resources of the underdeveloped countries around the globe.
Here in Southeast Asia, the US imperialists are making all sorts of tactical guise in order to re-position itself at an advantage. China is doing the same strategic re-positioning. If war breaks out between the two giants, again—yes, again!—our country will be a sure battleground! And we are made to believe by our own puppet leaders that we are going to fight a war to protect our sovereignty. Baloney! We have already surrendered our sovereignty to the US! What sovereignty do we have the honor to protect?
Our leaders should look into the example of Vietnam. They earned their precious freedom by the sheer might of their will and determination to win victory. And they succeeded in driving away the most rapacious imperialist superpower without shedding a tear—without crying!
