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| Photo from South China Morning Post |
Blogger's Notes:
Commentary of an Academic
(Copyright @ 2018 by Chester B Cabalza. All Rights Reserved).
The
suspension of work in the Philippines’ capital and the wreath laying ceremony
to Filipinos’ national hero in Rizal Park quietly capture the warm welcome of
President Rodrigo Duterte to his newly-found big brother President Xi Jinping to
the Southeast Asian nation in his two-day state visit.
Doubts
about the Chinese paramount leader’s stopover in sunny Manila after his weekend
sterling attendance at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation at Port Moresby concluded
without an agreed joint communiqué among world leaders in the Pacific Rim for
the first time in its 25-year existence. Only recently the world also caught
the attention of mercurial Filipino leader after skipping the regional summit
dinner and excused himself in favour of a nap gate at the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations Summit in Singapore.
Today’s
Duterte-Xi expanded bilateral meeting reaffirms the deepening of a futureproof Philippines-China
2.0 relations profoundly dubbed as the “Rainbow after the Rain” state visit deliberately
aimed at cementing the broken lines of good neighbourliness and friendship despite
the untimely release of anti-Chinese sentiments published by a reputable poll in
the Philippines before the red carpet rolled out for Xi Jinping expressing acceptable
trust for the Americans than the Chinese. More so the arrival statement of Xi
Jinping in Manila deeply reminds Beijing of its past sour relationship with the
archipelagic country under Duterte’s predecessor after it won the 2016
arbitration case against China invalidating its maritime claims in the
contested South China Sea.
Confident
in displaying an eminent role in the region bolstered by clever economic
packages through blurry Road Belt Initiative programs and leading a collective
support to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, China has arrived
intensifying its ability to weaponize small neighbours offering multi-billion dollar investment
pledges under the mantle of economic security due to simmering US-China trade
war. Meanwhile Filipino critics worry
about China’s policy of appeasement over policy of economic opportunity to the
Philippines undermined with cautious remarks from other Southeast Asian leaders
about the debt trap fear a nation may encounter from signing dozens of
juicy Chinese agreements.
Taking
off from how China handles a crisis, this linguistic faux pas may signify clandestine connotations of a chance of “danger”
and a possibility of “opportunity” that may illuminate Beijing’s treatment over
Manila’s maritime entitlements in the West Philippine Sea. This despite the tough Chinese hatred by majority of Filipinos posting a mixed reaction to Xi’s official
visit in Manila and discounting Duterte’s inaction to China’s intrusion in the
disputed man-made islands recognizing the giant neighbour’s continuous militarization
in the South China Sea.
The
Philippines’ strategic role as a guinea pig for Chinese crisis management
apparently bespeaks of the improving mutual understanding of former David and Goliath
neighbours in seeking the best formula to reign in the sea of peace. Understandably,
China’s burgeoning economic and trade relations with the Philippines can be viewed
singularly but the volatility of the two nations’ defense and security
relations over the skirmishes of maritime and territorial disputes in the South
China Sea clearly present a multi-linear lens of how economy and security intercedes
particularly when the pragmatic Filipino leader calibrated for soft-pedal on
territorial disputes with his baffling rhetoric that China is already in possession
of the contested waterway that elucidates a defeatist magniloquence of complete
surrender of Manila’s claim over the West Philippine Sea.
The
heavily debated Framework for Joint Exploration in the West Philippine Sea
citing references from the October 2016 Joint Statement of China and the
Philippines on joint exploration undersea and the November 2017 Mutual of
Understanding on Energy Cooperation certainly differ from the 2004 Joint Marine
Seismic Undertaking signed by the two sovereign states with Vietnam joining the
tripartite agreement later on to explore the South China Sea for oil and
natural gas. The agreement’s constitutionality ceased four years after the
three maritime claimant-countries in the South China Sea inked such a ground-breaking
cooperation before imploding into diplomatic and legal battles reaching an
arbitration case in February 2013 against China while the Philippines reaped legal
triumph in July 2016.
The
Philippines’ hedging strategy in pursuit of economic dependence from China to finance
robust infrastructure program should be dealt carefully. Manila now holds the
key to decide wittingly as other major powers including the US and Japan
continuously invest far more than China.
History
teaches us the best lesson. This is the time that we should remember General
Antonio Luna when the Philippines chose its destiny to ally with the Spaniards
or the Americans. There’s a new power in town! China is a reality.
General
Antonio Luna will ask you again, “Negosyo
o Kalayaan? Bayan o Sarili?”
