CHICAGO (JGL) – One of the “exports” America brought to the Philippines whose rules of the game have found popular acceptance among Filipinos is basketball, which is a Canadian invention. The other sport, of course, is baseball, which is yet to take root.
That is why I want to explain some of the foreign policies of the United States towards the Philippines by talking the basketball talk.
When World War II broke out in the Philippines on Dec. 10, 1941, the U.S. government and U.S. Congress, acting as co-owners of a basketball franchise called the U.S. Army Forces of the Far East (USAFFE) headed by its ball captain, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, asked MacArthur to form a team.
Undermanned, MacArthur recruited local players composed of Philippine Commonwealth Army and the rag-tag but loyal Filipino guerrillas to oppose the more numerous, well-trained and well-equipped Japanese Army.
With their guns on their head (U.S. Articles of War 85 against desertion in place for Filipinos), all 21-year-old able-bodied Filipinos were “obliged” to play the game. In other words, the Filipinos did not volunteer to join World War II — they were conscripted!
Filipinos were not really at war with the Japanese. It was the Japanese, who were at war with the Americans. The Japanese wanted a piece, if not, the whole of the Philippine soil. Just like today when the Chinese are trying to occupy the Philippine Western Sea (South China Sea).
As Commonwealth nationals, Filipinos were subservient to their American colonial masters. They were merely second-class citizens with limited political and civil rights.
Yet, Filipinos sustained the most damage in terms of human lives and property for the simple reason that the scene of the battle was the Philippine soil, not Honolulu nor Tokyo.
OBAMA TO NURSE OLD WOUNDS BETWEEN JAPAN AND KOREA
Had Japan focused their attack on Pearl Harbor and left the Philippines alone, I’m sure the Philippines would have been a prosperous nation, like maybe South Korea, which was ruled by Japan at the same time America was taking over the Philippines from Spain.
This is the very reason President Obama is visiting its two close allies — Japan and South Korea – ahead of the Philippines. Mr. Obama wants to repair the old wounds suffered by Koreans under the hands of the Japanese, who used Korean women, along with other Asian women, including the Philippines, as comfort women during World War II.
Mr. Obama wants both Japan and Korea to stand together with the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries to stop the imperialist ambition of China from occupying the Philippine Western Sea (South China Sea) and Senkaku Islands in Japan (Diaoyu in China).
Despite the united stand taken by Filipinos alongside Americans against Japan that led to Japan’s defeat during World War II, the U.S. Congress in connivance with the U.S. government did not appreciate the heroic efforts of the Filipinos by taking off the table their prize – the promised standard war pay to them when the U.S. Congress passed the Recession Acts of 1946. These laws reduced by half or more than half any benefits due them. That was 68 years ago!
I believe if President Roosevelt did not die near the end of WW II, he would have vetoed the Rescission Acts of 1946 knowing the Lincolnian expression that it does not make sense to change horses in midstream, aside from leaving his unprecedented four terms in defeat!
Roosevelt promised to rebuild the Philippines “brick by brick” and pay losses “to the last carabao.”
So, I find it hypocritical for President Truman, who succeeded Roosevelt, to say it was a “moral obligation of the United States to look after the welfare of Philippine Army veterans” after signing the Rescission Acts, when what he could have done was to veto the bills to assuage the feelings of the heart-broken heroic Filipinos.
By doing so, Truman would have left it to Congress to override his veto to become a goat to the Filipinos.
On the other hand, if Japan won, it would have been another story. That is why among America’s foreign wars, Vietnam War is the most hated by Americans because Americans were soundly defeated by Vietcongs!
In basketball, U.S. Congress refused to hand the trophy over to the Filipinos even if the accidental Filipino warriors were instrumental in defeating Japan after it passed the Rescission Acts.
ARMS LENGTH NEGOTIATIONS
When President Barack Obama visits the Philippines next month, I hope, he will urge U.S. Congress to apologize to the Filipino people for passing the Recession Acts just like President Reagan did to Japanese internees during World War II.
President Obama authorized in 2012 the declassification of a Confidential U.S. Army report on Philippine Guerrillas that estimated that the U.S. Veterans Affairs would be “expending” “one billion dollars” “in behalf of these veterans or their beneficiaries over a period of one hundred years.” Unfortunately, Mr. Obama did not act on the report.
The benefits that were signed by President Obama as part of the Stimulus Bill in 2009 merely highlighted the discrimination the U.S. Congress has towards Filipinos veterans – by giving higher lump sum pay of $15,000 to Filipino American veterans and $9,000 to non-American Filipino veterans.
For now, I believe, a sincere apology from President Obama and U.S. Congress would do.
After the apology, the U.S. and the Philippine governments can move on. They can re-start numerous rounds of negotiations, using the arm’s length principle, where parties to a transaction are independent and on equal footing.
I would like them to come up with the following resolutions:
1. Executive Order for President Obama to return the three Balanggiga Bells;
2. Executive Order for the reimbursement of the money derived from Philippine sugar subsidies crafted by U.S. Congress to finance World War II;
3. Executive order for the return of the money taken from the Filipino people and the Philippine Central Bank during WW II and transported to Washington, D.C.;
4. Settle the case filed against the U.S. government for abandoning the U.S. Bases without cleaning them up of nuclear and toxic wastes pending before the Pampanga Regional Trial Court;
5. Give the Philippine government the ability to inspect the U.S. facilities in the Philippines if there are nuclear weapons being brought into the Philippine territory, which is a violation of the 1987 Philippine Constitution;
6. Let the Philippine courts and jails have jurisdiction over an erring U.S. GI’s;
7. Let the Filipino soldiers killed or injured during war exercise with the U.S. be covered by the U.S. government’s life and disability insurance;
8. Executive order, recognizing Filipino WW II records based on records other those found in the National Personnel Record Center in St. Louis, Missouri;
9. Executive order, approving the Protective Temporary Status for Filipino nationals in the U.S. due to Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda that was requested no less by President Aquino; And
10. Allow the Philippine government to sue the U.S. Navy Captain of USS Guardian, who ignored warnings of Tubbataha marine park rangers, who radioed the USS Guardian to avoid Tubbataha Reef, when the Captain insisted the rangers “raise their complaint with the U.S. Embassy.” When BP spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 in what is considered the worst environmental disaster in American history, President Obama ordered the filing of charges against BP. Why not let the Philippine government sue the U.S. Navy captain, who intentionally, knowingly and recklessly damaged the Tubbataha Reef, so he will be punished punitively to give him lesson not to repeat the same mistake.
If only one or a couple of this laundry list above will be carried out during President Obama’s Philippine visit, I would say his visit will be a rousing success! (lariosa_jos@sbcglobal.net)