Who was it who said about rape that “if it’s inevitable, relax and enjoy it?”
This seems to sum up the policy of the Duterte administration with regards to China’s bullying in the South China Sea. We can’t afford to fight China, so let them do what they want to do in the South China Sea and let’s just enjoy the economic benefits it brings.
Over the weekend, after China said it plans to build an environmental monitoring station (read it radar station) on Scarborough Shoal (Panatag Shoal), a hotspot in the ongoing territorial dispute in the South China Sea between the Philippines and China, President Duterte said: “We cannot stop China from doing its thing. Even the Americans were not able to stop them. So what do you want me to do? Declare war against China? I can but we’ll lose all our military and policemen tomorrow, and we are a destroyed nation. And we cannot assert even a single sentence of any provision that we signed.”
That’s a very clear statement of resignation. A defeatist attitude from a guy who has shown an image of toughness throughout his long political career.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana had earlier said the Americans had stopped the Chinese from reclaiming the highly disputed shoal, but Duterte said no one can stop the Chinese from doing their thing in the South China Sea, not even the Americans. It was the second time in one week that the President had contradicted his defense secretary.
Earlier, after Lorenzana revealed that the government monitored in 2016 a Chinese ship surveying the Benham Rise, a 13 million-hectare undersea region and biodiversity hotspot, Duterte immediately came to the defense of the Chinese, saying China had informed him beforehand of its plan to pass through Benham Rise, an area recognized by the United Nations as part of the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
The Department of Foreign Affairs had filed a note through Philippine Ambassador to China Chito Sta. Romana, officially asking the Chinese government to explain the presence of one its vessels in Benham Rise, an undersea plateau in the Pacific Ocean west of Luzon that the United Nations on the Limits of the Continental Shelf declared as Philippine waters.
Duterte said the concern of the DFA and the defense department was exaggerated. “Pinalalaki lang yan (it is being exaggerated),” he said. “We don’t want to dignify (that). Things are getting great our way. Why spoil it?” he added.
Malacanang said the DFA and DND were informed of the matter beforehand. But both the DFA and the DND denied knowledge of any agreement with China on the presence of the Chinese ship over Benham Rise on UN-declared Philippine waters, which is believed to be rich in natural gas and other mineral resources.
“There are ships through the area exercising freedom of navigation. But the fact that this is within the sovereign rights and jurisdiction of the Philippines any ship would have to get permission from the Philippines if they wish to undertake research,” acting Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo, a career diplomat, said.
The DFA said any exploration or incursion into these waters should be made known to the foreign affairs department and seek the permission of the Philippines. Such a request would have to go through the regular process of informing relevant agencies and negotiation, the DFA spokesman, Undersecretary Charles Jose, said. He said the public deserved to know what was going on inside the government, including the country’s relations with other countries.
Twice during the past few days, Duterte downplayed any wrongdoing by the Chinese on Philippine waters, after which Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang visited Duterte in Davao City and announced that China is ready to help the Philippines build a P218-billion railway that would connect key cities in Mindanao, Duterte’s dream project. This followed an earlier offer of $10-billion worth of assistance.
To this offer, Duterte said: “Let me publicly again thank President Xi Jinping and the Chinese people for loving us and giving us enough leeway to survive the rigors of economic life in this planet.”
So that’s the part where the country was supposed to enjoy the rape of its sovereignty by the Chinese? Things are going our way, as Duterte said, why spoil it? Maybe we should spread our legs some more?
This attitude coming from the President has apparently emboldened China, which only recently said it has extended its maritime jurisdiction to cover all seas “under its jurisdiction.”
In July last year, the arbitral court of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) rejected China’s nine-dash line that serves as its basis for claiming sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, including the Scarborough Shoal. Last week, China ignored the ruling anew when it arrogantly insisted that it is within their sovereignty what to do what they want to do with Scarborough (Panatag) Shoal.
Obviously concerned about the effects of Duterte’s words of affection to the Chinese, Supreme Court Senior Justice Antonio Carpio said the government should avoid actions or statements that express or imply a waived Philippine sovereignty over any of its territories in the South China Sea.
Carpio, who was a member of the country’s legal team that argued the Philippine case before the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague and who has been appointed by Duterte as a consultant on South China Sea issues, said that any declaration saying that the country could not stop China from building on Scarborough Shoal actually encouraged the Chinese to build on it.
The eminent justice also reminded the President that as the commander-in-chief, he was tasked by the Constitution to defend the national territory. Although conceding that the country was no match to China militarily, Carpio said this should not deter Duterte from fulfilling his constitutional duty. In the face of the Philippine military disadvantage against China, the least the country could do, he said, was to file a strong protest against Chinese building activities, he said.
Carpio went further by saying that the country should rethink its relations with its giant neighbor to the north following China’s announcement that it would build a radar station on Scarborough Shoal. He warned that China’s move could escalate militarization in the disputed sea to back its excessive maritime claims in the region. The planned environmental monitoring station on Panatag Shoal, he said, may just be an initial step in a creeping occupation, as seen in previous Chinese incursions at Kagitingan (Fiery Cross) Reef, where the Chinese had built a naval base.
Instead of ignoring these warnings from Carpio and members of his Cabinet, Duterte should stop focusing on the billions of dollars that China is dangling, and start looking further into the future when China has all but encircled the country with military garrisons just miles from its shores and when China has taken away its right to exploit the mineral resources that abound on those reefs and waters, which could be worth a hundred times over what China is offering him now.
That’s when the rape would hurt.
(valabelgas@aol.com)