tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83824307702634353962024-03-14T02:08:31.045+08:00Law & Society by Chester Cabalza"The Filipino intelligence has a league of its own"Chester Cabalzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13860698970859998919noreply@blogger.comBlogger655125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8382430770263435396.post-89833155218409465202022-08-09T13:17:00.002+08:002022-08-09T13:18:40.728+08:00Maid in Malacañán: Is it Philippine Cinema’s Newness in Multi-Truth Era?<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrIHbepl7pSSdNqxKTMRIIUQZWVHKH35D9j_rPRHjaDIxIfrLrKXLZ0OjbtyCm6Fhk3V2NTa_JghvgHcaXh0ySGOPqjmu3xtl-9IC_pev10_a8LO4BpVEclGia75vSiEDnSV2QP5T5ToIgf2Z_-yZgIbs-qRrqk4kQbQBXeZ7YGdbDoRp6szgCRWECGQ/s580/Darryl-Yap.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="356" data-original-width="580" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrIHbepl7pSSdNqxKTMRIIUQZWVHKH35D9j_rPRHjaDIxIfrLrKXLZ0OjbtyCm6Fhk3V2NTa_JghvgHcaXh0ySGOPqjmu3xtl-9IC_pev10_a8LO4BpVEclGia75vSiEDnSV2QP5T5ToIgf2Z_-yZgIbs-qRrqk4kQbQBXeZ7YGdbDoRp6szgCRWECGQ/s320/Darryl-Yap.jpg"/></a></div>
Senator Imee Marcos, the real maid in Malacañán in the reel, claims the newest Marcos hagiography as ‘art of truth’ in their last 72 hours inside the palace during the political siege in 1986 dubbed as the ‘people power revolution’ by two warring political elite families in the Philippines.
A disclaim in the film when Cesar Montano’s (who played Marcos Sr.) dialogue utters that the Marcos family hails from the province (Ilocos Norte) and are not perceived as elitista (elites). Same as true with the Aquinos are probinsyanos (from Tarlac), though landed unlike the Marcoses.
The movie’s baffling artistic license, often shot in dizzying 360 degrees in most dramatic scenes pied in awkward altered genres not on equal footing with Hongkong production of the ‘Soong Sisters’ that also tells the story of modern China’s warring families.
Daryl Yap’s (the director of controversial one-angle films on social media) unconventional visual narration pursues a chopsuey of camera tricks to infuse comedy executed perfectly by the maids, a tearjerker family drama to showcase the ‘Filipinoness’ of familial connection, a little bit of horror with baby Aimee clad in white beautiful dress inside the eerie palace (a footnote on how urban legend affirms the palace is haunted), original clips from documentaries to augment historicity on their side, and real interwiew with the alive assassin.
The pandemic affected the breath of acting skills of popular actors in the movie for lack of genuine acting lessons to astutely interpret their main roles when they deliver storylines on screen (some historical figures played are dead or recently died but the rest are still living).
While the material succumbs to anti-thesis on current sophism of political truth inked in history books and essayed in social narratives, the other side of the coin presents new thesis to be synthesized and not to be monopolized by historians and social scientists alone but also vloggers and opinion writers (adopting to the multi-truth era) to fathom the wholeness of our own Filipino accounts.
In the post-truth epoch on narrative-making, the objectivity of story lies in amalgamation of voluminous tales―formed through chinwags, lies, or truths.
If the flick falls under the helm of Jerold Tarog (director of recently acclaimed historical films ‘Heneral Luna’ and ‘Goyo’), the strong portrayal of Cristine Reyes (acting on behalf of the movie’s creative consultant and producer Imee Marcos), it could garner natural intensity anchored on the charismatic portrayal of John Arcilla as General Antonio Luna or the inner struggle of Paolo Avelino as General Gregorio del Pilar.
As zoomed in and out from start to end of the movie, Cristine’s angst and wrath visibly resound to audiences as a pivotal plot of betrayal of allies and downfall of the hegemonic family in the contested palace. The grit of her experienced acting as a feisty character could be rooted from her blockbuster movie in ‘No Other Woman’ has unsurprisingly resurfaced, in honour for the protection and love of the undersieged family.
The late national artist for film Marilou Diaz-Abaya (director of multi-awarded biopic of ‘Rizal’) could have honed better her onscreen nymph protagonist Cesar Montano to soulfully play the legendary role of elderly Ferdinand Marcos during his severely-ill age in his tumultuous twilight period.
Other actors playing major characters in the family flop in dealing with their characterization, poised with lacking charismatic depth to navigate their important roles. That motivation should have been guided accordingly by Daryl Yap.
But the impulsiveness of public offering of the narrative on screen certainly compromised the conventional narrative of historical drama that Filipinos are accustomed to in movie watching. The adaptability to the hype of evolving cinema rolled out in catchy tale-telling in more innovative social media style that captures the relevance and irreverence of this new film caught in Tiktok’s pie of multi-truth era.
Finally, the binary likes and loathes of ‘Maid in Malacañán’ on its cinema rival ‘Katips’ hold true to the discordant taste of our choices. That’s how democracy works. Discern to watch it, process it whole-heartedly, and judge the new contents using your critical thinking.
Just like in the movie ‘Chocolat’, a disruptive confection coaxes the town to abandon themselves to temptation. The more you discourage others not to watch the controversial movie that is essential to complete the jigsaw puzzle in our history, the more it fashions a lot of buzz. It’s time that Filipinos listen to their narrative kept in 36 years. Then we judge it as people of a matured nation-state!
Chester Cabalzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13860698970859998919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8382430770263435396.post-43337105417511845002021-10-01T16:23:00.005+08:002021-10-01T16:23:54.324+08:00Will the Philippines align to AUKUS for its submarine program? <blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9vPomSDnwkw/YVbEvnhph8I/AAAAAAAAGK8/7iSXYF7_DkY16jmgSkhFa8glftQ-Q26DACLcBGAsYHQ/s1280/Submarine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9vPomSDnwkw/YVbEvnhph8I/AAAAAAAAGK8/7iSXYF7_DkY16jmgSkhFa8glftQ-Q26DACLcBGAsYHQ/w476-h180/Submarine.jpg" width="476" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo from Naval News</td></tr></tbody></table></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"><br /> By Chester B. Cabalza</p><p><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">Four days after the United States
commemorated the decade-old September 11 terrorist attack that restored its
glance on homeland security, the challenged superpower once again caught the
world’s attention, when President Joe Biden co-founded a trilateral security
pact with Australia and the United Kingdom known as the AUKUS to protect its external
defence and regional interest in the Indo-Pacific region.</span></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">The September 15 AUKUS agreement gives
Australia a preferential treatment to acquire nuclear-powered submarine from
its Anglo-Saxon allies. Nine days after, Washington extended its arms with
allies from Australia, India and Japan as it hosted the QUAD aimed at ensuring
commitment to safeguarding rules-based norms in the Indo-Pacific region to
pacify China’s aggressive militarization</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 36pt;">While debates focused on Canberra’s
strategic options to beef up its aerial and naval arsenals through the AUKUS, hanging
up on Paris in the equation, emerging Southeast Asian capitals began laying
down its cards for a shopping-spree list for submarines as alternative defence
of Chinese destabilization beneath the blue seas.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">Since the 1950s, Manila had been
planning to acquire submarines for the Philippine Navy. </span><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">In 2010, the navy revealed future plans to
acquire submarines as part of a follow up plan to the on-going </span><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">15-year 90 billion pesos AFP modernization
program. As an archipelagic nation, the Philippines has yet to reach an upright
maritime status, given its strategic location and pivotal role in the
geopolitically constructed Indo-Pacific region.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">After the Philippine Navy launched the
‘Offshore Territorial Defence Force </span><st1:metricconverter productid="2020’" style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;" w:st="on">2020’ program</st1:metricconverter><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">,</span><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">in response to Chinese massive
incursions in the West Philippine Sea, the French shipbuilder Naval Group
consolidated its plans to support the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ (AFP) modernization
program as it planned to open an office in Manila this year. In the 19</span><sup style="font-family: Garamond, serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">
century, France became the world’s second-largest navy that managed to dominate
the seas during its prime and participate in naval global explorations.</span><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">In the 20</span><sup style="font-family: Garamond, serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> century, the French
naval build-up slowed down until it was outnumbered by the German and US
navies.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">Now in the 21</span><sup style="font-family: Garamond, serif;">st</sup><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> century,
with the French desire to help Filipino sailors in the Philippine Navy using
the whole-of-alliance approach is intended to support the technology
development of the Maritime Defense Industry through the improvement of
controlling the national cyberspace, enhancing collaboration and alliance
building in the external information operations, and modernizing national
facilities of the Philippines’ armed forces.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">But Manila’s affinity to Anglo-Saxon’s
ties was strengthened when President Duterte revived the controversial Visiting
Forces Agreement (VFA) on July 31, 2021 after the courtesy call of US Secretary
Defense Llyod Austin III to the Malacañan Palace amid the threat to scrap the
military pact twice under his regime. Since 1945, the US has led and advanced a
rules-based international system with allies and partners. An unprecedented era
of wealth and peace has been created by free and open access to the world’s
oceans. Unfortunately, the system is now in danger while</span><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">the US maritime strategy
targets the two major threats to global peace and prosperity - China and
Russia.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">Technological advancement has been
affecting the maritime world. As a result, the security landscape of the global
region has shifted dramatically. Many states are challenging the stability of
power in the key regions, predominantly in the Indo-Pacific area, attempting to
destabilize the prevailing security order. The substantial technological
advancement and hostile military militarization of major powers like China are
increasingly eroding the US military advantages. </span><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">The proliferation of long-range
precision missiles, unmanned aerial and underwater 3 vehicles, drones,
artificial intelligence, and other technological advancements used for military
operations cannot be assumed that the US has control of the unrestricted access
operations to the world’s oceans during times of conflict. But the revisionist
actions of China in the maritime domain endanger the American interests. It
disrupts alliances and partnerships. If the current trends continue, the US
Naval Service will be unable to maintain a competitive advantage at sea and
secure national interests within the next decade.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #0e101a; font-family: Garamond, serif;">In 2007, Manila and
Canberra signed the Status of Visiting Forces Agreement (SOVFA), following the
VFA format, and was ratified by the Philippine Senate in 2012 in light of the
Scarborough Shoal standoff. Through the SOVFA, Australia has been part of the Philippines-US
naval<i> </i>exercises </span><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif;">while the archipelagic Southeast Asian
nation, remains one of the weakest armed forces in Asia and struggles to cement
its strategic position as a middle power in Southeast Asia. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">Maritime exercises are conducted for
the purpose of training, testing the interoperability of naval forces with
other foreign navies; exploring the opportunity to upgrade one’s own naval
forces with other foreign navies; and equally important, to support naval diplomacy
for the promotion of regional peace and security, and the enhancement of
maritime security cooperation in the region. For the Philippines, these naval
exercises similarly serve as an effective instrument in support of the
country’s foreign policy and interests through state-to-state collaboration.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">Annually, close to 20 unilateral,
bilateral, minilateral and multilateral naval exercises are conducted between
Manila and its allies. The importance of these maritime exercises is made more
significant in light of the tensions resulting from conflicting territorial
claims in the South China Sea and how effectively Beijing has an upper hand in
the Philippine-claimed West Philippine Sea.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">The limited resources of the AFP and
other affiliate law enforcement agencies also pose daunting challenges in
securing the vast Philippine archipelago. For one, the Philippine Navy is
responsible for the naval defense of the seabed and other submarine areas. In
reality, the country’s current naval assets and capabilities are
disproportionate to the requirements of securing an island nation especially in
the face of perceived threats emanating from our continuing maritime and
territorial insecurities in the West Philippine Sea.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 12pt;">Manila’s dilemma on submarine
acquisition falls now to limited resources more than its foreign relations with
the newly-formed security group AUKUS and its French connection. The price is
right mantra on submarine procurement will certainly shape the potential of its
submarine program as along as it corresponds to the aerial and naval needs of
Philippine external defence architecture that would provide a clearer,
long-term maritime deterrent plan built on mobile coastal defence batteries
armed with long-range anti-ship missiles and covered by integrated air defence
shield.</span></p><br /><p></p>Chester Cabalzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13860698970859998919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8382430770263435396.post-67897051170608143332020-07-17T11:22:00.002+08:002020-07-17T12:45:03.626+08:00Implications of the COVID-19 Crisis on Philippine Multilaterialism<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-afWp29yQDJM/XxEbI-vjY7I/AAAAAAAAFmI/09ulji-8HIcDGjo_4XlyFcirWbaa40aTACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/PCFR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1038" data-original-width="1600" height="258" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-afWp29yQDJM/XxEbI-vjY7I/AAAAAAAAFmI/09ulji-8HIcDGjo_4XlyFcirWbaa40aTACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/PCFR.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Speech before the international
webinar on Implications of the COVID-19 Crisis on Philippine Multilateralism
hosted by the Philippine Council for Foreign Relations on its 35</span><sup style="font-family: arial, sans-serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">
year anniversary.</span></b><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Good afternoon/ ladies and
gentlemen. Shout out first to the Philippine Council for Foreign Relations for hosting its first international webinar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">To the distinguished speaker Mr
Miguel Bautista and esteemed reactors Ambassador Vidal Querol and Mr Johnny
Chotrani, I deem that you have already shed with us your wisdom and
experiences when it comes to Philippine multilateralism. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">And for me, as the last speaker in
the pool of experts, what more can I add to this continuing narratives on
multilateralism?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">So, I’d rather try to synthesize
the discussion and spell out own analysis from the thesis and
anti-thesis of multilateralism in the post-covid crisis narratives. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">There’s this quote from Dutch
Philosopher Baruch Spinoza that says, “States should practice
multilateralism and abandon unilateral actions that adversely affect a
democratic and equitable international order, refraining from the threat or use of force<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">However, we're essentially in the
beginning of another Cold War between China and the United States. And the
Philippines, now dwarfed between the two competing powers, is nonetheless
indisposed of the grave consequences of its choice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As Spinoza calls it again, “nature
abhors a vacuum”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Yes indeed, there’s a leadership
vacuum posited by the coronavirus pandemic, and the consequences of the
breakdown of the US-China relations at the moment which can be construed as a grave competition of unpopularity/ for the world while the global
economy tries to recover and work together to achieve the keystone / of
the whole arch/ of globalization and global trade. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">With that pulled out, there's
going to be a tremendous amount of disturbance and disruption with the
rise of populist leaders that signals the fall of liberalism and considers
the brink of multilateralism. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">And this Cold War analogy is
"not perfect, but there are elements, including/ the hardening of
system-type competition, racketing up of military competition, and pressure
to delink economically, that were not as evident a few years ago," described
by the Philippine counterpart in the US, the Council on Foreign Relations. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The ideological struggle between
the Communist and Capitalist systems as espoused by Moscow and Washington can
be translated nowadays to the standoff between Washington and Beijing which
can now be compared to the foothills of the new Cold War as articulated by
former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">So far, we heard in-depth
insider’s notes and experiential comparative analysis of the European Union
and ASEAN, of India and ASEAN, and of China and the US from our main
speaker and two distinguished reactors before me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">But synthesizing everything and
weaving it from using theoretical frameworks on International Political
Economy, there’s this nomenclature called, Economic Nationalism or sometimes
referred to as Neo-Mercantilism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The global economic recession and
depression have contracted nations-states to finally own its economic and
financial protectionism caused by the havoc interests of health insecurity caused by the COVID-19. It is still unresolved as the world transitions to
the new normal, but it remains indefinite to resolving the economic impact of the killer virus. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Now, economic nationalism developed
theoretically, to criticize economic liberalism model with the following
tenets.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">First, that states compete
economically. A good examples would be the entry of trade war between the
US and China which we will see more of 2.0 and 3.0 of this economic slash
technological warfare in the near future. / It debunks the thesis of liberalism where it believes that companies compete economically, but never the
states. But we saw in the covid pandemic that only states failed, so do big companies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Secondly, free trade only benefits
the wealthiest, most advanced nations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But during the COVID -19 pandemic, the contagion became an
equalizer. It crippled many sophisticated public health systems and bug
down economies of first-world and developed countries from Europe to the
United States, Japan and South Korea / including emerging economies of Brazil
and Nigeria. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The assumption embodies that only
the advanced or “mature” industries / will defeat less advanced or “infant”
industries. But the pandemic has reversed the tide. We saw how start-ups and
other innovative companies / survived the pandemic, seeing respected
companies fell at the mercy of the COVID-19. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Thirdly for the less advanced
nations there needs to be alternative way of getting rich.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Free trade won’t lead to riches. It
wasn’t true again / as we saw how the pandemic levelled off the playing
field. We saw how illiberal economies like Vietnam, China, Cuba and Russia were unscathed by the economic impacts of the COVID-19 and even became
crusaders for helping bigger and developed nations combat the unforgiving
virus. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Talking about the Political
Economy of Pandemics, the COVID-19 policy responses have had attempted to
represent the unprecedented challenge Policy- makers worldwide, have to
react fast to a totally new type of crisis under enhanced public scrutiny, as these policies are immediately compared across countries. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Then what are the lessons gained
and learned: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">History shows COVID-19’s economic
fallout may be with us for decades. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In large-scale pandemics, effects
will be felt by the global economy, or across wider regions for two reasons/
(1) the infection itself is widespread which we saw in the COVD 19, and (2)
because trade and market integration / eventually it propagates the economic
shock across the map. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What are the Staggering Findings: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The effects are staggering when we
speak of large scale economy affecting pandemics based from the experience in past pandemics. Economic depression / can take from 5 to 10 years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This
neoclassical mechanism considers the labour-to-capital ratio of declines of
the Loss of labour without parallel destruction of capital leading to a
rebalancing of the relative returns to labour and capital. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In the past wars occur before pandemics, but now we
see the reverse where a pandemic affects conflicts by major powers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">So what will be the next Liberal
Order<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The liberal world order is
collapsing because its leading patrons,starting with the United States with 75 years of American leadership/ is now being questioned.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: "symbol";"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Washington is settling in for a
protracted struggle for dominance with China, Russia, and other rival
powers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The United States may no longer be
the world’s sole superpower, but its influence has never been premised on
power alone. It also depends / on an ability to offer others a set of
ideas and institutional frameworks / for mutual gain.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "symbol"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">A return to great-power competition would destroy what is left of the global institutions that governments rely
on for tackling common problems. Liberal democracies would further
descend into disunion and thereby lose their ability to shape global
rules and norms.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Then how do we counter this
scenario by fostering multilateralism? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The political economy of global
multilateralism can be justified. Its criteria for justification are
three. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">First, multilateral agreements ideally
should offer mutual gains for all the nations that are parties to them. If
the gains are not contingent on being part of the multilateral agreement, principles
of subsidiarity militate against joining.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Second, ideally multilateral
treaties should help nations be governed as an encompassing interest their
diffuse citizenry rather than special interests. One important way of
achieving this goal is to increase jurisdictional competition among nations which is the defining virtue of sovereignty. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Finally, multilateral agreements should not require a complex and intrusive international enforcement
apparatus, because distant international bureaucracies are likely to be
captured by special interests and thus reduce the power of encompassing
interests in national governance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">All in all, what will happen to
the Philippines? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As the world offers a view on the
multiplexity of coalition, Europe sees a repolarization of alliances, Latin
America / cries for non-polarity of union/ <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in its region, Asia adheres to a
staggering kind of multilateralism, Africa speaks of its continent's protectionaism of resources, while North America vies for the splintering of regional order. With all the fluidity of frameworks of the community of nations in
post-pandemic, in the end what I wanted to see more / is on how our country
will cope up from changes of the multilateral world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The incentives underpinning a
country's decision/ to enter a regional trade agreement <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is when a multilateral free trade agreement<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is available, and of how entering a
regional trade agreement affects the incentives to pursue multilateral
trade liberalization. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">But with the heavy burden on
COVID-19 pandemic the Philippines must enter into regional trade and
security agreementsthat will not undermine / the incentives towards
multilateral liberalization.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">But in moments of global recession
and depression, et’s be open to a solid<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>framework of sound political economy that justifies these divergent
intuitions and shows that the Philippines is rooted in more than just a
reflexive liking for trade combined with a disdain for the environment, human rights, criminal justice, and world
peace.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It must champion global
multilateralism for practical politics where compromise is frequently
necessary to present a sketch of what we would call "a regulatory
ideal" - a model by which we should inform the concrete practices of
global multilateralism. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Thank you very much and looking
forward during the open forum. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />Chester Cabalzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13860698970859998919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8382430770263435396.post-19028131175575404912020-06-17T21:24:00.002+08:002020-06-18T12:32:15.711+08:00Think Tech Tank: Touring the World in the Time of Pandemic<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2eJ28iV_d88/XuoZP54HsQI/AAAAAAAAFio/dSd-RG4qL84TswHbWLj4LBEAN91lzpikgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/set.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2eJ28iV_d88/XuoZP54HsQI/AAAAAAAAFio/dSd-RG4qL84TswHbWLj4LBEAN91lzpikgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/set.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If
I were to ask, what did I do during the quarantine period and at the peak of the
viral and racial pandemic? I must say that I virtually toured the world with a big purpose. While some of us optimized the perks and privilege
of staying at home, perhaps turning our own bubbles into productivity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As
I traveled round the world through the net, bearing the fume of our snail-pace
internet speed and ramshackle internet service, my forbearance brought me to
video conferencing beautiful minds in six continents and opening up with dialogues in 13 countries (Australia, Chile, Czech Republic, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Thailand, and the United States).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">But still, Antartica remains in my bucket list, reserved in the same intellectual wanderlust for the next season of my podcasting on the effects of climate change.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
fulfillment of meeting my colleagues, old and new friends through Zoom, from
abroad and locally, endeared the longing to share our talents and help the
world in our own little ways. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Yes,
I<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>successfully interviewed in my audio visual conversation 20 global experts, celebrated policy-makers, and top innovators who willingly
shared their research, analyses, fears and forecasts amid our fight against the
coronavirus disease, racial discrimination, and other important international
development and security issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">While
our medical frontline heroes wrestled with an unfair war, watching from
television how people from different walks of life had fallen prey from a
monstrous virus and why our world suddenly succumbed into economic recession and
depression. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
my insatiable aspiration to contribute to the narratives beyond the world health
crisis and chronicle foreign perspectives in our plight to squash the COVID-19, just like an armchair anthropologist poised for virtual ethnographic study, I assembled my small
team from the International Development and Security Cooperation (IDSC), a
non-profit organization, aimed at advancing development towards a secure world,
as they fly with me in this once in a lifetime cognitive adventure in time of a global
lockdown. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Capacitating on the knowledge-economy posited by contraction of globalization while embracing the new normal of information
dissemination, knowledge production, and remote podcasting. I told my team to
beat the handicap of blended learning as we prepare for an online global tour despite tight resources. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Amid
the pandemic, we pursued an alternative, balance, independent platform and fair
web content offering authentic home-based production in sharing intelligent
conversations from premiere academics, analysts, and scientists from around the
world. The beginning of a remote think tanking from a global perspective by not
only reporting world events and sharing information but offering a plethora of
in-depth analyses from expert-to-expert dialogues. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">In
spite of serious recorded conversations with full consent from our special
guests, a step forward to ethical standards, there were also bloopers and hilarious behind
the scenes seen during the productions from technical
glitches, internet disaster, sound system deficiency, wardrobe mismatch and to midnight podcasting
due to time zone differences. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">We made sure that the content of every podcast conversation from six continents became the heart of our incredible and creative team. It inspired us to tell eclectic stories on international development and security that are not digested much in the media and other reading materials. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I must
commend my good colleague Al Feliciano, a net wizard and ‘E-numan’ buddy after
every successful podcast production of the IDSC.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
would care now how much journalists, researchers, producers and directors would feel every after sad and happy interview. I sobbed and couldn’t sleep after learning from
the convo that seventy percent of Peru’s population got infected in public markets
by economic reason that majority of them don’t own refrigerator. But by
understanding the national culture of cooking daily the food fresh I made some
reservations from my biases. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I couldn't imagine how billion of Indians were
barred from going out during the national lockdown as a preventive strategy to
survive the pandemic. Happiness shrouded me after Italians waged an all-out war
against the coronavirus and successfully flattened the medical curve and sent
their message of hope of “andra tutto bene” to the world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We
shared the same disenchantment when Chileans suffered the same plot of
cybersecurity crackdown during the COVID-19 or how MENA and South Asia regions
wanted to reset its economy after the pandemic. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Filipino sinologists analysed
intently China’s [mis]behaviours on the US-China trade war, Taiwan’s successful
mask diplomacy and Hong Kong protests. On the other side of the story, Filipino-American sociologist
and criminal justice advocates brought out their inner voices against systemic
racism and racial bias in the United States. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
other podcast episodes, our expert commended Vietnam’s proactive measures on
contact tracing and sound policies in confronting China in the South China Sea.
Another analyst talked about the Philippines’ aspiration for a military
self-reliance while preemptive POST-VFA gave us a flat footed yet tough
US-PH relations from an American strategist's views. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It also drew comparative
counterterrorism policymaking with an Indonesian terrorism thinker. We understood how Africans seriously dealt with emerging diseases and pandemic in their continent. We also valued how Czech Republic in Central Europe and Thailand in Southeast Asia set
the bar on the new normal practices on tourism, business, and innovation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As
the interviews got multiplied after producing 15 episodes, expanding my virtual
travel from different continents, it spread out my horizon in viewing the world in multi-layered
but divergent perspectives of our world system. The sizable soundbites can be translated into future online books, webinars, op-eds or news clips, incubation of prospective development projects, and to a certain point, collaborative works suitable for various platforms in online knowledge production.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Australia
offered a view on the multiplexity of coalition, Europe saw a repolarization of
alliances, Latin America cried for non-polarity of union in its region, Asia adhered to a
staggering kind of multilateralism, while North America vied for the splintering
of regional order. With all the fluidity of frameworks of the community of
nations in post-pandemic, in the end what I wanted to see more is on how our country
will cope up from changes of the Anthropogenic world. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In time of uncertainties, we need to find solace in our will to survive the pandemic until we finally search the vaccine to heal the world altogether . <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Finally, thank
you to all your support to the IDSC. Looking forward to more talks with
colleagues and friends from around the world. Hoping to see you all in SEASON 2
for engaging and enlightening academic conversations!</span></div>
Chester Cabalzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13860698970859998919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8382430770263435396.post-80979829282436388082020-04-29T11:53:00.001+08:002020-06-18T01:50:47.329+08:00Vaccine Heist (Part 2): The Quest for Coronavirus Vaccine Begins<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-M3Zb6p08CYg/Xqj6Ehvu77I/AAAAAAAAFcw/ke8qx20DOQEWydMof0tiYgLlUMAe3yyQgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/4588..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="420" data-original-width="700" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-M3Zb6p08CYg/Xqj6Ehvu77I/AAAAAAAAFcw/ke8qx20DOQEWydMof0tiYgLlUMAe3yyQgCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/4588..jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo from The Guardian</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">By Chester B Cabalza</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Blogger's Notes:</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Commentary of an Academic</b><i> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>(Copyright @ 2020 by Chester B Cabalza. All Rights Reserved).</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Caveat! Just like in Part 1, the fiction comes from the figment of my imagination. The story takes off after the professor gathers his gang as they unlock mysteries behind the making of vaccines. Calling the
shots of Resistance, the brilliant Sergio Marquina sends them off to major global
cities to find the cure and halt the coronavirus pandemic as the WHO launched
the coordinated “Solidarity Trial” in 10 countries around five continents. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Part 2<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(Outdoor)</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Across the
vastness of the South China Sea, Tokyo and Lisbon scuba dive like mermaids in
full battle gear. They survive the marine extremes beneath the ocean. Crossing
the threshold of Liaoning’s hull, China’s largest combat aircraft battleship
and symbol of naval dominance in the world’s busiest sea lane. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">From
the weather deck bossing the ship’s forecastle, birds hurl quickly in remote
air; gracefully it flap wings to the horizon. The king sun makes way for its
dramatic exit in a grotesque sunset shimmer as the warship wallops the salty body
of water and keeps buoyancy in the deep blue sea.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Tokyo
carefully throws the antiretroviral drug to Lisbon (a survivor of the COVID
disease herself in Madrid).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Tokyo:
Inject it in your body! (She whispers to her. Lisbon keeps mum and paranoid). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">They
run and hide near the aircraft carriers. Sailors from the People’s Liberation
Army Navy deploy a drone and force feed radio frequency identification around
the missiles. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">A
Chengdu J-20 Chinese fighter jet deplanes. Gandia arrives in full personal protective
equipment (PPE) in red jumpsuit wearing a realistic Salvador Dali mask,
accompanied by three biogenetically cyborg assassins, chemically brainwashed, and
genetically immune by a tailored virus. Cyborg assassins can’t be infected by
the coronavirus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Professor:
Don’t you shoot Gandia! He’s on our side! (Talking to the combative ladies
using satellite phone patch from his distant hollow).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Lisbon:
Sergio, how can we trust him? (Worried of treachery).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Professor:
Just trust me! (he sighs in deep breath). Bogota and Denver injected convalescent
plasma to Gandia after you recovered from COVID. Your blood contains antibodies
to fight the virus. Antibodies are found in the plasma. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Tokyo:
Very well! How sure are you that your woman Lisbon is safe here? Are we safe
here? I’m used to bank robberies and battles, eh! But not like this one. The
virus is unseen, professor! (her temperament explodes like the intensity and
stealth of a cat fighter). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">You
told us what happened in the USS Roosevelt; almost all of the American sailors
were asymptomatically infected by the virus! It’s contagious! What shall we do
now? Did they find a vaccine yet in Washington? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Lisbon:
Gandia can get exposed again to the virus, even if we both recovered from COVID
(voice cracking). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Professor:
Listen (he tries to calm the two). China solely manufactures <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Carrimycin </i>tablets, a possible cure for
COVID-19-2020. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">But
Gandia will take the clinical trials for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">favipivar</i>.
Billions of doses are now mass-produced in Wuhan and Shenzhen, after the drug
had undergone clinical trials. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Come
to think of it ladies, there are 58 candidate drugs for antibodies, 22 for antivirals,
14 for cell-based compound, five for RNA-based compounds, 15 for scanning
compounds to be repurposed, and various other therapy categories for
anti-inflammatory, antimalarial, interferon, protein-based, antibiotics, and
receptor-modulating compounds. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">How can you not take the chances if there are
other 66 candidate drugs? Imagine all the 249 compounds our scientists and
military physicians are doing today. The world is developing 115 vaccine candidates;
let’s not lose this momentum, ladies. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Don’t
leave Gandia inside the Liaoning! That’s the safest passage to reach Shanghai
and Beijing because of the lockdown! Medicines are needed
to be shipped across the world. Make sure that the warship carrier is safe and
gets the right of passage once you reach the Horn of Africa and Panama Canal. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Tokyo:
Where are the other members of the team?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Professor:
I sent them to biotechnology firms and universities. Manila and Denver are in
India. Helsinki and Palermo went to Germany. Rio just reached
Italy while Stockholm has seen the mass grave in Brazil. Arturo talked to the CIA in New York while Marcella is talking to
Jacinda Ardern in New Zealand. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Tokyo: Make sure we’re all safe, professor! I hope no one from the team will die this time!
(Staring at Lisbon, agitated and sharp). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Professor:
(Listening in silence. Deep thinking. Mind wanders. Afraid...so afraid)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">***<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(Indoor)</span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> The gang seriously
listens to the professor as he vividly lectures on smallpox vaccine discovered
by British physician Dr. Edward Jenner. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
the flashback, all of the dead characters are alive sharing their thoughts with
robber colleagues (Oslo, Berlin, Moscow, and Nairobi are seated while observing
physical distancing inside the chamber). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Berlin
walks beside the professor and starts discussing about immunization.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Berlin:
(always candid and charismatic especially when he sneers to the team). Dr.
Jenner’s work is considered as the foundation of immunology (showing his old
photo from the screen). His vaccine killed the smallpox, the only infectious
disease to have naturally been eradicated in human history.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Professor: But evil nations will always use infectious
diseases for its advantage as a bioterror weapon, remember that! <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Rio:
Professor, how was smallpox treated at that time? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Professor:
Quarantine, vaccination, and people burned all infected clothes and bedding. Those
interventions helped the world flatten the epidemic curve. It was thought as an
airborne contagious disease that governments panicked in controlling the spread
of smallpox. Separate wards in hospitals were built solely for the terminal
virus, killing an estimated 300 million</span> <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">people. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Stockholm:
Oh, that’s a lot! I pray that COVID pandemic will not kill that much,
professor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Nairobi:
Ladies, did you know that the term vaccine (vaccinum) was derived from the
Latin word for cow (vacca)? That’s how it reflects the origins of smallpox
vaccination. Is it right professor? (amused pleasantly as the crowd gives her a
round of applause with her trivial opinion). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Professor:
You’re right, senora Nairobi! (he returns the sugary smile at her). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">But
that’s a misnomer for sure. It’s because the vaccine used to prevent smallpox was
likely a horsepox, not cowpox. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Dr.
Edward Jenner observed that milkmaids who had gotten cowpox did not show any
symptoms of smallpox after variolation or inoculation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Actually,
he infected a young boy with cowpox, but later when he injected the child with
the deadly smallpox virus, he did not get sick. It was an accidental mistake
that cured the boy. That beautiful mistake cured everybody with smallpox around
the world! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Nairobi:
Our son would be a genius, professor! If only… (she recalls her offer to him of
an artificial insemination while Inspector Raquel smiles at them and sobs in
sorrow of Nairobi’s loss). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Manila:
Eh professor, how much time did they discover the vaccine for smallpox? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Palermo:
The history of smallpox extends into pre-history. The disease likely emerged in
human populations about 10,000 BC. The earliest credible evidence of smallpox
is found in the Egyptian mummies of people who died some 3000 years ago
(looking at Helsinki, trying to impress him). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Professor:
That’s right, Palermo…and (trying to expound the facts when Berlin rebuts). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Berlin:
Yes, smallpox has existed for at least 3,000 years and was one of the world's
most feared diseases until it was eradicated by a collaborative global
vaccination programme. The last known natural case was in Somalia in 1977. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Moscow:
But China and India practiced smallpox inoculation even before the discovery of
vaccination? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Professor:
Very well, Moscow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s a method for
the prevention of smallpox by deliberate introduction of material from smallpox
pustules into the skin. This generally produced a less severe infection than
naturally-acquired smallpox, but still induced immunity to it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Just
like in COVID now, countries use various kinds of method. States that
experienced relative diseases on SARS, MIERS-COV, and Ebola virus are better
off in their medical practice and herd immunity compared with nations that have
less exposure on the coronavirus. It’s a novel disease. Still, we’re figuring
it out whether or not it’s a natural virus… <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Manila:
Professor, you didn’t answer me. How much time before Dr. Jenner discovered the
vaccine? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
the Philippines, the government is giving away 50 million pesos as a bounty to
the discoverer of the vaccine - they got virgin coconut oil and other
alternative medicine. Other countries are doing the same thing, giving away
prizes to bright ideas. We don’t need to rob banks anymore if we happen to discover
the vaccine. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Professor:
There’s no vaccine yet for COVID, Manila! (his voice sounds in anguish). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Dr.
Jenner’s method underwent medical and technological changes over the next 200
years, and eventually resulted in the eradication of smallpox.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Everyone’s
racing for the vaccine. This isn’t about the Nobel Peace Prize for science and
medicine. Scientists and physicians need different stages of clinical trial to
do that. The experiment has to undergo phases of test from small, to medium to
large clinical testing. Once approved then the drug gets certified to be used
by everyone. It should be feasible and mass produced to kill enough the
coronavirus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It
took the world two centuries before the smallpox disease was naturally
eradicated through a vaccine! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If
our generation won’t survive the plague, perhaps the next generation will
outlive it. We see herd immunity with rising recoveries. That’s good! Scientific
data would show us that with strict quarantine and lockdown, we flatten and
squash the virus, though the contagion keeps on mutating. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Just
like in a flu that can be healed but can’t be cured! Recurring as we see it. There's
no cure for the flu, but there are available natural ways to ease the symptoms.
It can’t because there are drugs that inhibit one of the enzymes that the virus
uses to get into and out of cells. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Right
now, there are potential post-infection therapies for COVID-19-20. These are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">favipiravir</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lopinavir</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hydroxychoroquine</i>
or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">chloroquine</i>. All are in final
stage of human testing before it reaches the fourth phase of manufacturing!
Although there are also individual or combined drugs such as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lopinavir-ritonavir</i> combined, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lopinavir-ritonavir</i> combined with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">interferon-beta</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">remdesivir</i>, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hydroxychloroquine</i>
done in separate trials. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We’re
running out of time ladies and gents! This quest for vaccine can become our
exit strategy. Making sure that the vaccine is safe by undergoing rigorous
testing that should result to harmless consequences. It takes 10 years to do
clinical trials for a vaccine but scientists are racing to discover it for
months, unless hundreds of millions of people will die if we don’t do something
now! It took two centuries to perfect smallpox vaccine. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">***<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(Outdoor) </span></b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Denver and
Manila arrive in Mumbai in spite of a national lockdown around India, the
largest sub-continent nation to do so. Inside one of the largest pharmaceutical
companies in the world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Manila:
<i>Hydroxychloroquine</i>, they say this anti-malarial drugs is a game-changer drug in the fight
against coronavirus. The miracle drug? By the way, how can we convince India to make a surplus
when the rest of the world is still suffering from the pandemic?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Denver:
Let’s do what professor has told us to do. Just prepare billions of Indian
rupees! I trust your negotiation skills, Manila!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Professor:
Denver, do you hear me? (He’s calling them from the satellite network).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Inspector
Sierra is arriving shortly to help you negotiate and get the drugs manufactured!
Do you copy? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">TO
BE CONTINUED>>></span></div>
Chester Cabalzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13860698970859998919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8382430770263435396.post-32341885820526417312020-04-28T17:43:00.003+08:002020-04-28T17:44:24.977+08:00Beijing draws flak in launching Ideational Power campaign in the Philippines<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WRl3ZFJ4Qi0/Xqf6o3R9btI/AAAAAAAAFck/MLHf-S_FHR8QXfF4kCtCZXpkteOA1ACigCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/edit20200427-543x420.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="420" data-original-width="543" height="308" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WRl3ZFJ4Qi0/Xqf6o3R9btI/AAAAAAAAFck/MLHf-S_FHR8QXfF4kCtCZXpkteOA1ACigCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/edit20200427-543x420.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo from Manila Standard</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">By Chester B Cabalza</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Blogger's Notes:</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Commentary of an Academic</b><i> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>(Copyright @ 2020 by Chester B Cabalza. All Rights Reserved).</i></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The viral song
of friendship entitled ‘Iisang Dagat’ (One Sea) launched last April 24 in social
media by the Chinese embassy in Manila as a dedication to COVID-19 workers in
the frontlines in Beijing and Manila drew flak from netizens in a bid to control
an escalating political squabbling amidst the coronavirus pandemic. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The almost
four-minute music video penned by Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang
Xilian gained collective dislike from Filipinos firing clash of opinions and
hate messages than drawing mutual empathy between the two neighbouring nations pitted
at each other to patch up diplomatic differences on its naval operability in
disputed maritime domains.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">China’s foray
into ideational underpinnings, an apex of the current geo-strategic commanding
heights struggle to reduce health and medical liabilities from Beijing meant at
flattening the plateau of the plague. China’s Communist Party builds a
gargantuan aid network that runs a reciprocated soft approach to friendly
countries, a possible heed of exemplary action to Xi Jinping’s commandments of
exporting equipment and expertise on COVID-19.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The arrival of
Chinese specialists on respiratory and infectious diseases last April 5, led by
Weng Shangeng, while on medical mission diplomatically applauded the
Philippines’ positive, proactive, and effective measures in containing the
deadly virus that originated from Hubei province. It complimented Filipino
medics’ professionalism and dedication in high rescue success rate, however, maintained
further attention in refining detection capacity and epidemic prevention
supplies during the exchange of medical experiences. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Filipinos’
distrust in Beijing rose last November 2019, a month before the coronavirus
pandemic spread out of Wuhan, relative to the opposing stand of PLAN in the
contested islands claimed by the Philippines. The recently uploaded propaganda
music video that promotes co-existence and good neighbourliness stirred another
heavy sentiment among Filipinos in dealing with China’s perceived intimidation
and collateral damage as the Philippines grieves for the loss of frontline
medical workers and other patients who succumbed from COVID-19.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Confusion on
Chinese schizophrenic behaviour over kind clinical extension program on
COVID-19 and aggressive military expansion outlook in the South China Sea
overlaps the ideational power campaign launched by China in a capacity to
champion the Philippines and submit into a condescending cognitive validity or
normative value that strongly adheres to Chinese worldview. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The assertive
solidarity expression made by the Philippines and Vietnam last April 8 against
China’s standard operating procedures in virtually patrolling all the claimed
maritime domains in the South China Sea led to the recent tactical ramming and
sinking of Vietnamese fishing boat by Chinese white ship amid the pandemic.
Both Southeast Asian nations experienced similar intimidation and coercion by a
major naval power in the region.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">On April 23, a
warship from the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) threatened a gun-fire at
Philippine Navy (PN) ship near Commodore reef in the Philippine-occupied West
Philippine Sea. Another maritime commotion occurred last February 17 between
the PLAN and PN in a routine maritime patrol when a Chinese corvette relayed an
obstinate response transmitted through radio waves about China’s sovereignty
rights in the contested waters.</span></div>
Chester Cabalzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13860698970859998919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8382430770263435396.post-29762130483815196922020-04-27T17:00:00.002+08:002020-05-02T12:57:55.010+08:00POGOs: A Trojan horse locked in Manila’s rich ghettos <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Fo0UVxyhLNw/XqafAnD-5mI/AAAAAAAAFcY/cTYElshdqZQMNjXyVpMbkTG5MKHYzxsVACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/hqdefault.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="480" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Fo0UVxyhLNw/XqafAnD-5mI/AAAAAAAAFcY/cTYElshdqZQMNjXyVpMbkTG5MKHYzxsVACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/hqdefault.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo from ABS-CBN News</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">By Chester B Cabalza</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Blogger's Notes:</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Commentary of an Academic</b><i> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>(Copyright @ 2020 by Chester B Cabalza. All Rights Reserved).</i></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As the
Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) now placed under the category of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), it deals with online gaming for mainland
Chinese gamblers, still considered an illicit operation in China, the golden goose
industry employs more than a hundred thousand foreign workers deployed in the
country’s major cities, leaving one-third of the workforce to Filipino locals.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Philippine
enforcement agencies on public safety and national security quietly work in
silo, avoiding a stronger unified command, indulging every bit of
compartmentalized strategy in cracking down POGO-related crimes and espionage,
skewed to deficiency against organized crimes committed by Chinese nationals, occupying
burgeoning cities of Metro Manila construed as a Trojan horse.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">POGOs vividly recreate
ghettos stirring an imagery of patriarchal hegemony of transnational
enterprises imagined in a confluent stringent mafia culture. Unrestricted gambling
may extend beyond the glorification of ‘godfathers’ and ratifies trafficking of
drugs, humans and weapons. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The popular amusement
and leisure offshore gaming magnifies social inequalities and economic
injustices that capriciously levels off the playing field of escorting modus
that leads to bribery scheme locally dubbed as ‘pastillas’, cyber fraud,
contract killing, emerging economic crimes and prostitution. The (re)making of
a Chinese ghetto in Metro Manila’s financial districts look auspiciously odd, strategically
located in loci that accidentally reconstruct a landscape of cultural acrimony
and financial insecurity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The influx of
Chinese workers attached to diversified businesses opens up to a variety of
needs that exclusively cater to their kind and the rest of Filipinos. General
precautions on the reverse economic impacts of POGOs subsume greater
consideration to the country’s macroeconomic interest. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Economic gray zone<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The legitimacy
of Chinese offshore gaming’s resumption of operation under the guidelines of
the general community quarantine obscured by the coronavirus pandemic is undeniably
questioned in spite of the clamour to open up the ailing business. The spike in
higher rentals, salaries, and fees for support it unconventionally adds to the
country’s gross domestic product has temporarily discredited the momentum of cash
flows during the plague. But the Philippine government claims that it could become a milking cow or good source of financial resources to replenish the national coffer to sustain public needs in this trying times. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Mushrooming
online gambling weaves a fabric of major sourpoint amalgamation for the
Philippine government and its volatile bilateral relationship with China. Apparently
professed as economic gray zone but ambiguously deceived as influence
operations swelling to acts of money laundering and tax evasion. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Optimizing the
robust trade relations of the Philippines and China, the rise of Chinese
companies operating in the archipelago marks proximity in distance and
affordability of labor. The real score in booming realty demand and retail
spending for Chinese nationals shaped rapid ventures of various sunrise
industries and start-ups in the country yet the social backlash that POGOs
brought in banes latitude of unpopular policy for its transitional economic gains
and explosive liquid assets.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Contrary to
China’s total ban of the illegal gambling operation, it constructively appealed
to the Philippines to halt any POGO-related activities, a credence that
rescinds Chinese moral and social fabric. A successful persuasion of the same
economic restriction to cement a strong social cohesion was addressed by Phnom
Penh when it banned last year Chinese-owned online gambling in Cambodia. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Island
chain strategy and Trojan virus<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">On August 2019,
the Chinese embassy in Manila raised grave concern for Chinese citizens working
in offshore gaming businesses as Philippine authority proposed self-contained
POGO boroughs to limit the interaction of local and foreign workers, a prepared
blueprint preferably outside of the metropolis to the dismay of Chinese
officials that it infringes the rights of foreign operators. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The most
controversial investment eyed for POGO economic hubs raised a red flag on the
country’s national security when Chinese investors strategically pointed out
Fuga Island in Cagayan province, and adjacent Grande and Chiquita islands in
Subic Bay, Zambales province, in a bid to build a Chinese smart city in the
northern frontier of Luzon. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">A fruition of
the Philippines’ bilateral trade relations repackaged under China’s Belt Road
Initiative, the planned mega-project would accelerate the value of yuan
denomination, advantageously aimed at supporting the giant neighbour’s
geopolitical agenda. If approved at that time, the conversion of the three
islands into affluent Chinese ghettos makes a gateway of opportunity for China’s
naval coordinates as it widens access to the first island chain that connects
with Taiwan, a lucid vision for possible reunification with mainland China’s
renegade province and lost territory. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The dynamic
presence of POGO centres sprouting near military headquarters have conceivably
heightened alarms and trepidations on espionage, partly blamed for poor
urban-planning and conversion of military bases into commercial spaces. Chinese
workers playing chameleon role as spy is not far-fetched from reality. The
dangers lurking behind the sophistication of disruptive technology used by
offshore gaming operators can invade and pervade critical infrastructures of
the country. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Perceived
as a Trojan horse, currently imbedded in the Philippines’ vector of economic
security, the controversial online gaming industry’s multi-dimensional
implications and domino-effect could impinge on public safety and national
security. Like a Trojan malware infecting users’ devices or attacking routers
of wireless networks, the offshore gaming operations have temporarily propelled
economic stimulus to reach projected financial output, birthing to social malady
and cyber vulnerability. </span>Chester Cabalzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13860698970859998919noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8382430770263435396.post-57023721173788957142020-04-10T18:06:00.001+08:002020-04-12T09:07:16.777+08:00Vaccine Heist: The World Needs Vaccine to Combat the Coronavirus Pandemic<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wzw27zTNPHw/XpBErwiOrLI/AAAAAAAAFbM/64mmIRkcsYkVc5hIWcW-aeJgjIkPbnr5wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Money-Heist-Season-4-Release-Date-Plot-Cast-Information-on-Season-5-and-Money-Heist-Spin-Off-scaled-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wzw27zTNPHw/XpBErwiOrLI/AAAAAAAAFbM/64mmIRkcsYkVc5hIWcW-aeJgjIkPbnr5wCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Money-Heist-Season-4-Release-Date-Plot-Cast-Information-on-Season-5-and-Money-Heist-Spin-Off-scaled-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo from The Buzz Paper</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">By Chester B Cabalza</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Blogger's Notes:</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Commentary of an Academic</b><i> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>(Copyright @ 2020 by Chester B Cabalza. All Rights Reserved).</i></span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Caveat!
This story is just a figment of my imagination inspired by the worldwide phenomenon
series La Casa de Papel (taking off from their successful heist in the Royal Mint of Spain and cliffhanging end at the Bank of Spain). The fiction follows the story on how to find the vaccine for COViD-19! </span></i></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">PART
1<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(Indoor) The
professor lectures the gang about the trends on coronavirus pandemic using data
science showing to them the number of infections, recoveries and deaths. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Inside
the dark room of an Antonio Gaudi’s look-a-like abode in Barcelona, standing
elegantly in his nerdy-looking yet charismatic composure, he holds a laser
pointer, directly looking at Lisbon. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Flashes of
images of beautiful and ugly scenes on how he has intimately bonded with Oslo, Moscow, Berlin, and Nairobi (all dead) run through his thoughts. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Distracted. Annoyed.
Perspiring. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Lisbon: Sergio,
what’s going on? (Baffled and concerned). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Professor: China
has won the game! (Serious as usual as he pointed on the screen showing the
origin of the virus in Wuhan).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">He steals a look
at Toyko. In her stylish attire, intently eavesdropping to him, her curious
mind walks fast through the pandemic events – the Chinese whistle blower
physicians who died of the COVID-19 and how they were silenced by the
politburo. Different outbreaks that hit the world from 1720 Great Plaque of
Marseille, 1820 Cholera, 1920 Spanish Flu, to the 2020 Coronavirus. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">There’s a slow
sounds of chants of Bella Ciao playing on air while imageries of people wearing
of masks, physical distancing, and news reportage on major hit countries from South
Korea, Italy, Spain, Iran, Nigeria, Australia, Peru, and the United States are fast
forwardly shown on the screen. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The gang’s
intense guise upsets neither Manila nor Stockholm. Both of them are listening
conscientiously to the professor while he explains the uptrend death toll in
the Western World compared to the downtrend in Southeast Asia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Manila:
Indonesia and the Philippines have more than 200 deaths each and less than a hundred each in Malaysia and Singapore. But the rest of the countries in Southeast Asia have
zero fatalities. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Professor:
Exactly! Mainly because they are friends with China, or they may have known
about the outbreak, beforehand!<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Looking at
epidemiologic history, Southeast Asians are immune from Chinese, Indian, and
Arab diseases through early trading before Portuguese and Spaniards arrived to
colonize the region. They may have also shared the same DNA with the people in
the Pacific and Madagascar in Africa because of the navigation drive of Austronesians
southward! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Denver: That’s
absurd, eh! How can you say that in an epidemic? The elderly and adults get
infected and are dying! You may get killed on streets in Metro Manila if you
disobey the quarantine orders, there’s a lockdown, professor! (Berated wearing
a poker face minus his choking laughter). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Professor: I
know Denver! 2.6 billion Citizens of planet Earth or one third of the world’s
population is living on a global lockdown! Can you imagine India doing that?
(He removes his glasses and wipes his teary-eyes). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Stockholm: Italy
has more than 16,000 deaths, Spain has more than 13,000, France has more than
8,000, and UK has more than 5,000 as of April 6! These are first world
countries. Many of the hard-working health workers in Western and Mediterranean
European states are Asians; some of them are from the Philippines!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Denver: And the
United States have more than 10,000 death tolls. Can you explain that,
professor!? Is it about the presidential election and the Mexican wall? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Bogota: How did
that happen? I thought the western world boasts of their sophisticated social
medical system? Aren’t they prepared for a pandemic?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Professor: No! Because
there’s no vaccine yet! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">And the western
world may have zero immunity to this novel coronavirus disease! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Angela Merkel
pleads the Germans to think of it seriously. The killer enemy is unseen unlike
what Europe saw in the two world wars and the Cold War! Boris Johnson suffered
the virus and was placed in the ICU, even Prince Charles is positive! Giuseppe
Conte, out of disenchantment, welcomed the help of Cuba and China! These are
fucking Communist countries! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Bogota: We’re bank
robbers and not scientists, professor?! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Helsinki: We may
have operated Nairobi inside the Bank of Spain (sad and disgusted), but we’re neither
surgeons nor virologists! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Palermo:
Professor, ask Marsella he’s an animal rights activist! Right, Marsella?
(Everyone laughs in concert while looking at Marsella at the back). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Marcella smirks
at Palermo and ignores the joke. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Tokyo: We’re
thieves for a cause, professor!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Lisbon: We’re
not even experts on a pandemic! (Standing meters away from Sergio to observe
physical distancing. The couple are staring at each other, consciously wearing
face masks, to contain the transmission of the virus). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Professor: First
wave of the outbreak occurred when the novel coronavirus went out from Wuhan
and infected many overseas Chinese! The first case of Chinese death happened in
the Philippines last February 9. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Second wave
deals on local transmissions in all corners of the world! That’s why we see around
the world on how different national governments imposed interventions using enhanced
community quarantine! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Saudi authorities are using heat-sensing drones to
monitor people on the streets. Tropical countries are praying that heat wave
during the summer season will kill the virus, that's why they extended the
quarantine. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The minimum should be 40 days just like what Venice did during the
bubonic plaque. London has the longest lockdown in six months in earlier
plaques. Singapore may extend the lockdown until December this year for the
survival of the Singaporean gene pool. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It’s still a
lockdown just like a martial law! Military and the police will enforce it!
Ordinances and emergency laws will be enacted following any typical lockdown! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Look, there are
only four countries, mostly islands that are not affected yet by the pandemic! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">North Korea shot
down their first COVID patient to halt a local transmission against human
rights violation. Mongolia isolated the French patient from the rest of the
society to stop the spread of the virus and strictly closed borders. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The third wave
happens when workers and students who are lockdown for many weeks and more than
a month will go back to offices and schools! Many countries will neither
flatten the curve nor squash the virus! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Japan and Sweden
tried flexible interventions by giving freedom and compromises to their
citizens but the virus bounced back even with strict cultural norms on washing
of hands, wearing of masks, and physical or social distancing were observed! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Taiwan and New
Zealand are doing well but WHO ignored their good practices! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The UN Security
Council will call for unity and understanding coz even the organization is
vulnerable to save its ass! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Member-countries
will stop trusting each other and will wait for further cooperation. That’s a
classic Waltzian scenario on anarchic world!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The five
permanent members of the Council will ally differently with each other. China
and Russia will have a stronger alliance, while the rest of the members will
weaken their strengths until autocratic members will disrupt the world order
into their favour forming a multipolar or bipolar world!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This is about
political leadership! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Irregardless if
a government is autocratic or democratic, the virus is merciless, unforgiving
and deadly! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Leaders will
have to flex responsibly their powers! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">National coffers
will be drained due to lockdown. It will create a global recession that only
well-prepared great powers will dominate the economy in the near future! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Front line
workers, mostly from the health sectors will be heralded heroes for their
courageous will to combat the disease but politicians will seize every
opportunity to show off their leadership style! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Most of them
will get sick of the virus! Others will get sick of power! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The world will maintain
an organized chaotic system as we will see a gargantuan landscape of power rivalry.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Poor families
will go hungry!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The middle class
will have the privilege of staying at home, working from home, become obese and
bored, but once the lockdown will not be sustained, they will revolt
online against abusive leaders!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Few rich
families will become philanthropic but most of them will preserve selfishness
to save their own interests!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Now, the fourth
wave will occur when all the ports around the world will be opened up again.
Tourists, diplomats and businessmen will freely travel the world and become
carriers of COVID, either they become symptomatic or asymptomatic. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Traditional
media will suffer large-scale and will use a pint size warm-bodied courageous
personnel to cover the pandemic! They will largely focus on the survival of
their own patients and how will local governments respond to the basic needs of
their citizens. Without them knowing that an autocratic great power will seize
international media; and information warfare will begin to disrupt the system. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Video conferencing systems will get malwares or electronic viruses and
cybersecurity will become a global threat. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Great power
rivals will flex muscles and will use the virus as leverage! It will happen,
it’s happening now!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Tokyo: What’s
the point of all this fuzz, professor? (Recklessly exasperated and bored!) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Is there a World
War 3?! Will there be zombies just like in movies?! Is it the Armageddon?! <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Should we call
the Pope and Dalai Lama?!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">How do we solve
it professor? (Agitated). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Rio: Many
frontline health workers are dying… (Distressed and dismayed). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Lisbon: We need
to find the vaccine! Right, professor!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Professor:
Eighty percent of tested with mild COVID infections recover. They need
self-quarantine, medications, and they can isolate themselves at home. Fifteen
percent suffer severe cases where they need to be hospitalized. The doctors
will tell them if they need to be confined in the hospital or recuperate at
home. Only five percent will be placed in the Intensive Care Units – they will
fight for their lives. But most of them will die!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Many of the
dying patients are elderly and men. It’s gender-biased. Women will survive well
in a pandemic (Looking at directly to the eyes of Lisbon, Tokyo, Stockholm, and
Manila. While Palermo and Helsinki meet eye-to-eye to question it). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Everyone will be
vulnerable. Our bodies will need this immunity. It’s like herd immunity for
evolutionary process! The world is biologically and socially evolving! Our
human species is best challenged at the moment to rule the world while Mother
Nature regenerates! Even mammals will have to evolve! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Manila: It’s the
survival of the fittest! Stronger gene pool wins over those with weaker immunity! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Tokyo: So, where
are we going to steal the vaccine?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Professor:
Scientists from China, South Korea, Australia, the US and Europe have already
copied blood samples and swabs from coronavirus patients, mild and severe,
symptomatic and asymptomatic, just to produce the vaccine! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Scientists are
choosing which of the four retroviral medicines for anti-HIV and anti-malaria
will be used for the COVID-19! WHO will do sampling test cases and will prescribe
the most efficient and affordable drug to become the standard vaccine for all the
patients worldwide!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This pandemic will
certainly show us a plethora of perspectives on how to solve this doomsday
riddle! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We have to look
at all the angles in geopolitics, world security, economy, technology,
religion, medicine and science!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We will use
science! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Lisbon: Science!
(and she moves her hands to do a sign of the cross and prays silently). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">Professor: We
are the Resistance! We need to find the vaccine! Mass produce it to save
humanity!</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">(TO BE
CONTINUED)…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<br />Chester Cabalzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13860698970859998919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8382430770263435396.post-63643921954753820522020-04-03T17:12:00.001+08:002020-05-07T11:09:19.385+08:00Multipolarity demands a world leader, and it’s not China<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Pa7Hnz3RgMA/Xob985AxYJI/AAAAAAAAFaQ/872Btg0F-ao4xIKu3zZEsGFBJirJ-4figCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/xi-jinping-mask-1024x546.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="546" data-original-width="1024" height="212" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Pa7Hnz3RgMA/Xob985AxYJI/AAAAAAAAFaQ/872Btg0F-ao4xIKu3zZEsGFBJirJ-4figCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/xi-jinping-mask-1024x546.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo from Shanghaiist</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">By Chester B Cabalza and Mark Payumo</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Blogger's Notes:</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Commentary of Academics</b><i> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>(Copyright @ 2020 by Chester B Cabalza and Mark Payumo. All Rights Reserved).</i></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The global race
to combat the new coronavirus pandemic shows a litmus test at how China can
become the world’s leader. The emerging great power transforms into a
powerhouse that hypes philanthropic acts in many ill-stricken global cities, endowing
soft power that backfires into soulless information warfare and untrustworthy
COVID-19 testing kits, amidst the open-ended Armageddon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In December 2019,
Chinese physicians breached China’s firewall, twitting messages in
micro-blogging WeChat about the virus from Wuhan City. The whistle-blower
doctor Li Wenliang, raised the red flag of the possible outbreak but ignored by
the Chinese politburo, even before the World Health Organization declared the
epidemic as a ‘global health emergency’ before it was elevated in the shortest
span of time as a pandemic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Neither the
world faults nor discriminates the Chinese people of the blame-game and racism
borne out of universal abhorrence or rancour to China on COVID-19. The absence
of Xi Jinping’s transparency on the early spread of the unforgiving virus has led
to the large scale mutation of the coronavirus, crippling global economy in
lockdown, yet resulting to unstoppable transmissions infecting more than a million people and killed over 50,000 patients worldwide, accelerating on its third and
fourth wave devastations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Orchestrated
bandwagon <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Despite
Washington’s flexed global military power, the United States’ overconfidence and
Donald Trump’s complacence to quell the virus fell out to indispensability by politicizing
and weaponizing the Chinese virus. The massive spike of American confirmed
cases, the planet’s highest caseload, roll out at the veins of its financial
district becoming the new epicentre that succumbs to hundreds of death, recalling
the identical soreness New York has experienced since 9/11. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Distressed G7
economies in Europe topped by Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, France and Germany
temporarily surrendered its woes. It proclaimed the battle against the unseen
evil as the worst catastrophe since the continent hit by two world wars. The
great Chinese stage of spreading the virus orchestrated a bandwagon of the Old
World to the rising phoenix, a contender to derive a multipolar world system. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Netizens in a borderless
world have seen anarchy from their homes. It challenged western medical system’s
advancement in curing the new strain of virus. In a contagion, not only social
distancing has been required but a call for economic and political distancing
from China. The Waltzian neorealist approach of ensuring affected nations’
survival from coronavirus pandemic re-enacts a security dilemma to derail
China’s ascent in the theatrical stage. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The bouncing
effect of the novel coronavirus strikes concurrently that it contaminates again
China, the world’s original epicentre, as nations follow various interventions
and responses in surviving the pandemic. Ailing developed West frightens now
recovering developing East as hubs of infection. While the U.S., Italy and
Spain are hardly hit by the pandemic, grieving from unprecedented death tolls,
the question of social mobility and economic inequality divides the world as it
faces unprecedented economic recession.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The fatigue it
brought to China’s balancing act limits cooperation created by fear and
mistrust on relative gains and the possibility of dependence on China’s
predicted primary role over the virus it has accidentally spread out to the
world. The high cost of conflict and paranoia this pandemic may take undervalues
the military prowess of any major powers, as this whole flux on non-traditional
security on health, it still dispenses authority from major powers, as it may
resist assistance from the lone superpower as it strives for its own survival. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">China’s
dismay of the global order<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Long
dissatisfied with the international order that the U.S. has set up since its
ascension by becoming a superpower after the Second World War. China when it
opened up as a sleeping economy in 1978 long appealed for multipolarity to
achieve its own national strategic aims. While this might play well for other
nations’ desire to have an equal voice in international fora, the diffusion of
geopolitical leverage has an accompanying effect of eroding U.S. influence on
the world stage, the major condition Beijing needs to advance its own
interests. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">But what these
interests might mean for the world is gradually unravelling especially in the
middle of the current pandemic. To be sure, Beijing intends to fill the vacuum that
America failed to act as the world’s foremost superpower or at least to have an
equal footing on its hard and soft powers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The U.S. climbed
as the world’s most ready of nations on the Global Health Security Index, but
it failed its position during the COVID-19, becoming the new global epicentre
of the coronavirus pandemic. As a respected global leader over the past seven
decades, the U.S. wilfully acted on its benevolent principle of preparing and
coordinating conscientiously for a global response crisis by championing a
coalition among its allies to counter any disease outbreaks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Nonetheless the
current tide of interventions and responses on the pandemic will apparently
present a realistic China-centric one-act show in a globalized world capping a
forceful diplomatic campaign in combating the virus. The medical pandemonium
has generally altered the global macroeconomic directions that set plurality of
supervision of the world’s economy and trade in a presumptive post-COVID-19
scenario.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Beijing’s
success lies not on the spread of the microscopic lethal virus that it has
spread around the world but as to what may happen to Washington and its western
counterparts now bend on cooperation with China’s gradual recovery. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">Multipolarity
demands a new leader, but definitely it’s not China but a concert of great
powers. This sobbing challenge is only an upgraded version of an interconnected
world where the pandemic demonstrates resilience of our interdependence. It
will somehow brighten the U.S. that it will need a new strategy to maintain its
global position.</span>Chester Cabalzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13860698970859998919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8382430770263435396.post-8183676135076864822020-03-24T12:39:00.002+08:002020-03-24T13:46:15.900+08:00Will the Philippines survive the coronavirus pandemic? <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NJzStyzrKNk/XnmO4k-qi5I/AAAAAAAAFZE/1TSnRb2DpaQAD6fZBeG74NIHNV5G-bM7wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="259" height="239" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NJzStyzrKNk/XnmO4k-qi5I/AAAAAAAAFZE/1TSnRb2DpaQAD6fZBeG74NIHNV5G-bM7wCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/images.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo from Pharmaceutical Technology</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">By Chester B Cabalza</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Blogger's Notes:</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Commentary of an Academic</b><i> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>(Copyright @ 2020 by Chester B Cabalza. All Rights Reserved).</i></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">From the almost
110 million Filipinos - there are 501 infected cases, 33 deaths, and 19
recovered patients today from the unforgiving coronavirus pandemic. The rapid
spread of the COVID-19 in the Philippines is reshaping our tenacity to reform one
of Southeast Asian nations’ poor yet elitist health care system. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Recent uptrend
data of the dead and infected patients, whether tested asymptomatic or
symptomatic disease, present susceptibility among Filipino elderly, frontline
professional and overseas workers, and mostly the middle class in urban areas
based from medical bulletin. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Historically, Filipino
ancestors coped well with epidemics and did not suffer demographic collapse
when the Spanish conquistadors colonized the Philippines, unlike the Aztecs and
Native Americans had to agonize from the dreadful scourge of Spain’s
microscopic secret weapon of small pox outbreak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The European
disease of smallpox atrophied indigenous peoples’ numbers in the New World
during the infancy of western exploration in 15<sup>th</sup> century. The
absence of natural immunity to smallpox of the Aztecs annihilated their
population. Three centuries after, it was only in that period the first virus
epidemic had ended through a revolutionary vaccine discovered by British physician
Edward Jenner.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Studies showed
that Filipinos in pre-Hispanic times previously acquired immunity to diseases
through trading contacts with the Chinese, Arabs, and Southeast Asians. But the
tropical Philippines’ collective disease history may suggest that Filipinos had
more in common with Austronesians in the Pacific islands than in mainland Asia,
and here comes the crusade in the current human-induced disaster of the
coronavirus pandemic. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The COVID-19,
now touted as a pandemic by the World Health Organization, offer a plethora of
perspectives where local political culture matters in mitigating the deadly
virus. The Philippines’ young population also suffers the curse of coronavirus
with more senior citizens falling down, although below the global average of
3.5% of mortality rate, even with a strict call for a viral regional and in due
time a national lockdown.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Recent call of
the executive branch in the Philippines to give President Rodrigo Duterte
additional power is in question but time is of the essence in saving more
lives. Tightening of our national borders in all frontiers without the
declaration of national emergency is a bravado act in itself for anti-pandemic
work in an effort for an all-out campaign against the coronavirus to flatten
the curve given a decrepit state of public health system in the Philippines.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Rapid
urbanization and population explosion in current globalized world, in which the
Philippines is guilty of the post-modern pains, made more emerging diseases susceptible
nowadays as the rich and poor succumb to its terror reign. Thousands of viruses
continue to evolve and mutate, adapting from patterns from animal-to-human to
human-to-human transmissions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The coronavirus
pandemic that started from China has dramatically affected the world in
virtually only few months and the giant neighbour for some geopolitical reasons
now a close friend of the Philippines battles for its survival as well. It may
be prematurely construed that the COVID-19 disease born from Wuhan in China is
rapidly killing Europeans and Americans at a fast rate, perhaps due to zero
natural immunity to the new and mutated virus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">A bouncing
effect or recirculation process may occur that it may contaminate again the
original epicentre if not adequately contained. The West now frightens the East
as hubs of infection while Italy and the United States grieve from unprecedented rising death tolls, the biggest blow from unseen enemy after the two world
wars. Out of fear, travellers from old and the new worlds are forcibly barred
from entry or obliged to mandatory quarantine in many lockdown Asian
cities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">A courageous complete
bloc access from hot spot countries of the COVID-19 rising fatalities is
possible for Metro Manila if containment fails after the enhanced community
quarantine. Closest to our geopolitical region, a grim yet unrealistic scenario
can be done following modern hermit kingdom North Korea of locking down with no
coronavirus infection yet or Mongolia’s sole infected case may be emulated if
complete bloc access shall be enforced properly by the military and law
enforcers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">A month of
enhanced community quarantine may not be enough despite the Philippines’
fragile economic resiliency. The world certainly copied Venice’s legal remedy
of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">trentino</i> (30 days) but increased
the forced isolation of infected sailors to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">quarantino</i>
(40 days) where the medical word quarantine has been coined. But Italy aches in
deep sorrow as the new epicentre of coronavirus pandemic nowadays as Cuban
physicians arrive to help them combat the selfish virus. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">London lockdown
and practice of staying at home for seven months occurred during the Great
Plague of 1665, becoming the longest outbreak in human history. The English folks
painted red roses in front their house doors, even writing a plea for
forgiveness. Mass graves became a common practice to decontaminate the fallen
community.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">At that time
when the Americans occupied the Philippines, the US government established the Culion
Leper Colony, a former leprosarium located in Palawan, to get rid of leprosy in
the archipelago. It was proposed as the sole
method known at that time to isolate existing cases and gradually phasing out
the disease from the population, although it offered patients to receive
adequate care and medical treatments.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Today Filipinos’
mobility has been made easier by the presence of low-cost airline carriers
afforded by the moneyed and ever-growing middle class. The hyper-concocted
world in current world health emergency also enabled infectious agents, like a
constantly mutating virus, to multiply rapidly and spread unpredictably. A
significant percentage of local COVID-19 cases involve a lot of traveling,
either in business or leisure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">With proper
respect to anonymity and privacy of persons under investigation and infected
cases, majority of stricken-ill and death toll of the COVID-19 patients in the Philippines
come from financially capable socio-economic bracket. Most of them were
confined and quarantined in high-end hospitals and reside from gated
subdivisions in the metropolitan, mostly from Quezon City in Metro Manila. Self-confessed
asymptomatic patients who underwent mandatory self-quarantine were senators and
popular actors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Question on
social mobility and inequality may hinder uncertainty surrounding the outbreak
of the coronavirus disease in the country. As poor Filipino families in
informal settlements rely to prayers and strong natural body immunity system,
so as not to acquire and get infected by the deadly virus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Philippines
is still seen as a country vulnerable to the COVID-19 with increasing number of
infected cases. Now that major cases are found outside China, affecting
particularly major African, European and Middle East cities, driving xenophobia
and national lockdown, the Philippines and other global governments should
craft new and clever measures by putting right policies in place to contain the
pandemic coronavirus outbreak while many scientists still race to find vaccines
to cure the disease, even with the availability of more than 60 kinds of
alternative treatments and diagnostics shared worldwide.</span></div>
Chester Cabalzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13860698970859998919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8382430770263435396.post-25149199072840929622020-03-22T15:19:00.002+08:002020-04-03T17:14:10.488+08:00Elderly, middle class, urban dwellers more susceptible to the COVID-19<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zvSM3wIkG4U/XncRU5BHsLI/AAAAAAAAFYk/QNnHwVGmgKYoisP5ycDGS6qS5wUZiCQpQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Coronavirus_Elderly_Person_PTI-770x433.webp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="433" data-original-width="770" height="223" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zvSM3wIkG4U/XncRU5BHsLI/AAAAAAAAFYk/QNnHwVGmgKYoisP5ycDGS6qS5wUZiCQpQCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Coronavirus_Elderly_Person_PTI-770x433.webp" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Phto from India Today</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">By Chester B Cabalza and RJ O Taduran</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Blogger's Notes:</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Commentary of Academics</b><i> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>(Copyright @ 2020 by Chester B Cabalza and RJ O Taduran. All Rights Reserved).</i></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The rapid spread
of the novel coronavirus in the Philippines is reshaping our tenacity to reform
the country’s poor yet elitist health care system. But recent uptrend data of the
dead and infected patients, whether tested asymptomatic or symptomatic of the COVID-19,
apparently show increasing cases among Filipino elderly, frontline professional
and overseas workers, scholars and politicians in urban areas – mostly coming
from the middle and upper classes echelon of the society.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The COVID-19,
now touted as a pandemic by the World Health Organization, offer a plethora of
perspectives where local political culture matters in mitigating the deadly
virus. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The success of
Asian tiger economies in containing the coronavirus outbreak, maintaining a downtrend
number of newly infected cases around Northeast Asian region, has laid down
holistic and proactive implementation of travel restrictions on passengers
coming to-and-from China, originally the world’s epicentre, despite massive
economic loss of major aviation hubs as the world gradually plummets to global
recession caused by the latest catastrophe.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In particular,
quick responses from the Central Command for Epidemics magnifying a clear
health security policy resulted to smarter governance corresponding
aggressively in coming up with pragmatic school and work policies, innovative
national crisis planning and civil protection systems by cautiously reducing
the feeling of abandonment, social inequality and mistrust from
governments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Ageing
Population <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As Italy suffers
the curse of coronavirus, surpassing the global average of 3.5% of mortality
rate, even with a strict call for a viral national lockdown, the favourite
Mediterranean holiday tourist spot replaced China as the new epicentre of the
pandemic. A developed nation with highly sophisticated socialized healthcare
system and part of the Group of Seven (G7) economies, hardly hit by grave
fatality which can be attributed to its elderly population who are susceptible
to the virus. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The world’s
populace is ageing. Fearless forecast by the United Nations predicts that one
in six people will turn 65 years old by 2050. The spike in coronavirus cases
among geriatric patients worldwide over 60 years of age, heavily relying on
pension and health cards, may succumb to the deadly virus in spite of
complicated chronic conditions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Apparent critical
inflection of risk from this median age dies from the effect of uncured
diseases. Eighty percent of COVID-19-related deaths reported in all of America came
from the boomers’ generation, the same gene pool with the highest mortality in
Wuhan City of China, birthing symptomatic vulnerability as age increases. Many
of the diagnosed cases across continents are senior citizens who are at risk in
a state of high stress and tension especially during winter and spring seasons.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Resolute efforts
in containing the pandemic need a complete lockdown, whether regional or
national, by limiting human-to-human interaction in transmitting the virus
especially to the ageing population, obviously observed as the most vulnerable
group. Restriction of movements of various modes of transportation in air, land
and water should be monitored to lessen transmission to the elderly who heavily
rely on public transportation in highly developed cities in Asia and Europe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Middle
class vulnerabilities<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Before local
transmission plagued the country, persons under investigations and infected
cases were tracked down based from foreign travel history. Diplomats,
businessmen, globetrotters, and mostly repatriated Filipino crew members from
the Diamond Princess Cruise ship docked in Japan became suspected carriers of
first wave human-to-human transmission. By far, the coronavirus pandemic has now
infected more than 300,000 people across the globe and killed more than 13,000
patients. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Filipinos’
mobility has been made easier by the presence of low-cost airline carriers
afforded by the moneyed and ever-growing middle class. The hyper-concocted
world in current world health emergency also enabled infectious agents, like a
constantly mutating virus, to multiply rapidly and spread unpredictably. A
significant percentage of local COVID-19 cases involve a lot of traveling,
either in business or leisure. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Middle class activities
such as mass entertainment and sports gatherings were temporarily shut down
while various global government advice their respective citizens on staying at
home. Enforcement of patrol border and employment of social distancing measures
throughout these trying times of generational pandemics make sense to halt
annihilation of human population based from best practices considered from
humanity’s pandemic medical history during the Spanish flu in 1918 and the H1N1
in 2009. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Marshall McLuhan’s
global village has realized the escalation of contagious and emerging
infectious diseases brought by the ill-effects of globalization. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The novel
coronavirus explicitly has intensified on how Filipino generation X, millennial
and gen-Z can utilize technology and data sciences’ interconnectedness giving
mandatory online classes for students under community quarantine and set employees’
convenience of working from home in a skeletal workforce to many affected metropolises,
now lockdown, where privileged members of the middle and upper classes can enjoy
the perks of comfort in large-scale efforts to contain the COVID-19. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Urban
space and warfare against an unseen enemy<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The influx of
city-migration and overpopulation of seven billion people on Earth expose the
failure of urban planning to the incubation and widespread of malignant
viruses. Contamination and sanitation in major cities are prelude to pandemics
caused by human-induced disasters. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Recent
implementation of the enhanced community quarantine in the largest Luzon Island,
populated by almost 60 million Filipinos, have seen innovative guidelines
contested by local and national leaders. But the availability of multifaceted
and multi-platform news stories on social media in sharing rapid responses and
information dissemination, empowered urban dwellers against ignorance, racism,
and blame-game of the COVID-19. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The call for
mass testing of every Filipinos, whether or not testing result will turn into
positive or negative, remains a big challenge to the government due to limited
availability of mass-produced testing kits, either locally made or
imported.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">With proper
respect to anonymity and privacy of PUIs and infected cases, majority of
stricken-ill and death toll of the COVID-19 patients come from financially
capable socio-economic bracket. Most of them were confined and quarantined in
high-end hospitals and reside from gated subdivisions in the metropolitan,
mostly from Quezon City in Metro Manila. Self-confessed asymptomatic patients
who underwent mandatory self-quarantine were senators and popular actors. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Question on
social mobility and inequality may hinder uncertainty surrounding the outbreak
of the coronavirus disease in the country. As poor Filipino families in
informal settlements rely to prayers and strong natural body immunity system,
so as not to acquire and get infected by the deadly virus. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">On the other
hand, the deployment and mobilization of armies in city borders,
notwithstanding the heroism of frontline law enforcers and health workers in
dealing with pandemics, are commended for their tactical and strategic
capabilities in protracted warfare, even highly encouraged to combat with
unseen enemy in maintaining peace and stability in societies plagued with unknown
fear and confusion. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Philippines
is still seen as a country vulnerable to the COVID-19 with increasing number of
infected cases. Now that major cases are found outside China, affecting
particularly major African, European and Middle East cities, driving xenophobia
and national lockdown, global governments should craft new and clever measures
by putting right policies in place to contain the pandemic coronavirus outbreak
while scientists still race to find vaccines to cure the disease, even with the
availability of more than 60 kinds of alternative treatments and diagnostics
shared worldwide. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In the end, a
united world that is far better insulated from disease threats sees a safer
environment armed with bravery from fear of heath insecurities and certainly is
here to challenge humanity’s value system to work together as a community of
nations amidst this generation’s greatest trial of survival.</span></div>
Chester Cabalzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13860698970859998919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8382430770263435396.post-6687386385559415082020-02-03T19:08:00.000+08:002020-02-03T19:20:06.905+08:00Novel Coronavirus (nCoV): Stop Blame to Racism but a Preservation to Gene Pool<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_sky5w7jcr8/Xjf_vhvtxgI/AAAAAAAAFXM/UYljPvGjkmYju7zozR8AgKjmbyFtGOYwACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/nCoV.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="452" data-original-width="678" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_sky5w7jcr8/Xjf_vhvtxgI/AAAAAAAAFXM/UYljPvGjkmYju7zozR8AgKjmbyFtGOYwACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/nCoV.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo from The Sun</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">By Chester B Cabalza</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Blogger's Notes:</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Commentary of an Academic</b><i> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>(Copyright @ 2020 by Chester B Cabalza. All Rights Reserved).</i></span><br />
<br />
The Philippines placed second after China to suffer death toll from the 2019 novel coronavirus (nCoV). Of the 28 countries affected globally, many of it have temporarily banned flights from China to save own gene pool from contamination from deadly virus. Pragmatic nations even shut off China from air, sea, and land but not virtually. Against racial discrimination and political shenanigans, restrictions imposed, avoiding annihilation of humanity from the fatal germs.<br />
<br />
Imagine if Singapore is wiped out from the virus, the innovative city-state shall no longer breed crazy rich Asians; or if Finland hesitates to close its doors from affluent Chinese tourists, we will lose the standard bearer of happiest people on Earth. Mongolia, a close nighbour to China, appears to have no patient yet; but if it happens, the descendants of Genghis Khan will be snapped in seconds.<br />
<br />
Small and big nations, whether rich or poor, succumb to the vulnerability of the contagious and confusing outbreak despite the entire Hubei province and its epicentre in Wuhan city held in serious quarantine upsetting all of the provinces of the world's most populous and third largest country.<br />
<br />
We know for a fact that widespread infectious diseases have profoundly changed the course of human history. A case in point, Spain's microscopic secret weapon in the form of smallpox epidemic, decimated the densely populated city of the Aztecs. There came the Black Death or bubonic plague that struck Eurasia, killing 20 million Europeans.<br />
<br />
Hollywood visualized how contagion can become a global pandemic brought by a coronavirus-like in a star-studded movie in 2011 that originated from China caused by bats. Never believe in eerie similarities birthing armies of zombies from blockbuster pulp films caused by the noxious virus.<br />
<br />
Early this year, Chinese physicians breached China's firewall when they started twitting messages about the virus from the human-induced epicenter while a brave migrant worker asked Xi Jinping's resignation on mishandling what the World Health Organization recently described as 'global health emergency'; but vigilant and concerned Chinese citizens got arrested. Or Chinese locals can be locked up for seven years if they slam their government or spread hoaxes in micro-blogging WeChat.<br />
<br />
Nonetheless, local politics has not been spared from trending tweets of vitriolic ousting of our own leaders judged by netizens based from their reactions and policies about the current health security.<br />
<br />
Hundreds are dying with rising confirmed cases across continents from lethal respiratory infection. Thai doctors use a cocktail of flu and HIV drug for treatment of stricken patients while Australian researchers have successfully cultured the coronavirus permitting fellow researchers to develop improved treatments and diagnostics for antibodies. Scientists alike race research on vaccines to cure the disease spoiling tension from overburdened medical system.<br />
<br />
When the world bleeds from contagion the more we need doctors and health workers without borders. Never say that you can't do something, or that something seems impossible, or that something can't be done, no matter how discouraging or harrowing it may be; humans are limited only by what we allow ourselves to be limited by our own minds.Chester Cabalzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13860698970859998919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8382430770263435396.post-59628913965933922102019-10-01T09:17:00.001+08:002019-10-01T09:23:36.621+08:00Exploring Historic Manila City, Philippines<b style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Photographs by CBCabalza. Copyright © 2019 by Chester B. Cabalza. All Rights Reserved.</span></b><br />
<br />
With the new mayor 'yorme' Isko Moreno in Manila, I joined my UP Diliman graduate students exploring the revived capital of the Philippines. From the National Museum (Fine Arts, Anthropology, and Natural History), we had lunch in Binondo - the world's oldest Chinatown, and proceeded to the historical Intramuros. Tried the famed bamboo bike around the cobbled stone pavements of the Spanish heritage walled city sightseeing Manila cathedral, San Agustin church, and chill at Casa Manila!<br />
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Chester Cabalzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13860698970859998919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8382430770263435396.post-20914048082400218722019-09-30T11:01:00.000+08:002019-09-30T11:10:38.756+08:00Advancing the Philippines-Russia Security Relations <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xc5N9zlXUy4/XZFv5lyLwzI/AAAAAAAAFSU/1m1VLe5LLmIPoL4tRcYDro-eSHdToUsmACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/putin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="859" data-original-width="1280" height="267" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xc5N9zlXUy4/XZFv5lyLwzI/AAAAAAAAFSU/1m1VLe5LLmIPoL4tRcYDro-eSHdToUsmACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/putin.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo from Reuters</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">By Chester B Cabalza</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Blogger's Notes:</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Commentary of an Academic</b><i> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>(Copyright @ 2019 by Chester B Cabalza. All Rights Reserved).</i></span><br />
<br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">All is set for President Rodrigo
Duterte’s visit to Russia on October 1-5 where he will speak before the Valdai
Forum in Sochi about the theme “The World Order Seen from the East.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is recalled that jihadists and foreign terrorist
fighters in Mindanao maneuvered a perfect timing to attack Marawi City in
Southern Philippines last May 2017 while the Filipino leader flew to Moscow for
a five-day state visit but was aborted within half day upon arrival in an
attempt to reorient his country’s geopolitical alliance through his newly
concocted Independent Foreign Policy created during his election three years
ago carrying the mantra of “friend to all, enemy to no one” approach - a move
to strengthen Philippines’ international defense and security cooperation with
non-traditional allies including socialists China and Russia. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Initially President Duterte got star
struck to Russian president Vladimir Putin in November 2016 at the sidelines of
the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit meeting in Lima, Peru. When
President Putin invited him to Kremlin, the Filipino firebrand leader ardently acknowledged
the bromance on his first trip to Russia and personally met his “favorite
hero”. That gave him the iota of realigning his ideological framework on
working on a new world order with China, the Philippines, and Russia at the
forefront against the world. For Russia’s appeasement, it has refrained from
admonishing Duterte’s strategic acquiescence on war on drugs that led to
thousands of extrajudicial killings. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">At that time, one of his intentions of
forging a formal defense accord with Russia addresses the need for securing
precision weaponry to be used against Islamist militants in Mindanao. This
major blow on Philippine internal security under Duterte’s regime apparently
showed the massive impact of terrorism, an endemic security problem not just in
the Philippines but within Southeast Asia. Terrorism turns out to be a common foe
of the two Eurasian countries that gave more meaning to the nascent stage of friendship
while fostering a mutually-beneficial and building a stronger defense and
security relationship. Advancing into a strategic partnership, Russia disclosed
to adamantly support the Philippines’ struggle against terrorism, drug
trafficking, piracy at sea and other security sector issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In over four decades of the
Philippines-Russia relations, Manila sent for the first time its defense
attaché to Moscow last May 2018 signifying the Philippines’ seriousness in
pursuing defense and cooperation with Russia. It aimed at strengthening linkage
with Russian military institutions and defense industry while monitoring the
implementation of the Defense Cooperation Agreement signed with Russia in May
2017. This however ensured the synergy in the Philippines’ relations with
Russia in the politico-security and defense arenas. As early as September this
year, Moscow reciprocated the act of sending its defense attaché to Manila
while setting a milestone for the diplomatic ties of the two countries paving a
new channel of communication to enhance bilateral defense pact. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This renewed diplomatic ties is seen as
multi-dimensional in keeping with the principles of sovereignty,
non-interference and equality since Peter the Great laid down a strategy to
explore the Far East via India and the Philippines to establish trade links in
1722. Today, the beautiful dive sites and pristine islands of archipelagic
Southeast Asian Philippines have become favorite hubs among tourist Russians
despite the absence of a direct flight from Moscow to Manila. Since 2013, the
Philippine Department of Tourism has been participating in the Moscow Travel
and Tourism Exhibition to strengthen existing relations by ensuring continued
growth in the hospitality and tourism sectors. As Russia achieves an upper
middle-income status from a mixed and transition economy since its fiscal
reforms in 1990s, thereby aggressively expanding the privatization of its
energy and defense-related sectors, Filipino household service and skilled
workers are in demand in the former USSR. However, Russia wants to limit the
agreement from government-to-government negotiations in which the Philippines
has yet to comply considering that labor organizations in Manila are not abreast
to this kind of set-up. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Meanwhile, the highlight of the visit is
the honorary doctorate degree to be conferred by the prestigious Moscow State
Institute of International Relations or the MGIMO to the Filipino leader,
formerly a city prosecutor and mayor, before becoming the 16<sup>th</sup>
president of the Philippines. This conferment is an exception from his other
state visits aimed at expanding and forging relations as a manifestation of his
undefined independent foreign policy, thinking that the diversification of
partnerships can recognize the growing interdependence among states that may
contribute to the Philippines’ national interest and domestic agenda. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In November last year, the Philippines
and Russia completed the plan mapping out joint military activities that paved
way to the four-day friendly visit of three Russian warships docked recently in
Manila last September 23. This military plan include high-level exchanges, port
visits of navy vessels, reciprocal visits of staff and security consultants for
military training exercises, people-to-people engagement and education
exchanges. In the same way, a Philippine frigate made a historic trip to
Vladivostok last year while Russian gray ships now make regular visits to the
Philippines. It is only during the time of President Duterte that the two
non-traditional countries have reached the peak of golden age of partnership while
the Philippines sees Russia as a major strategic player in geopolitics, defense
and security, and a good host to overseas Filipino workers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The warming defense and security
relations of the Philippines and Russia started from admiration to admission of
Russia’s strategic role in global politics as the Philippines tries to spell
out its diversified Independent Foreign Policy while at the same time Russia enjoys a
foreign policy to retain its position as a major power in the multipolar security
architecture of the world.</span></div>
Chester Cabalzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13860698970859998919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8382430770263435396.post-72827931015938057482019-08-30T13:01:00.001+08:002019-08-30T13:57:09.800+08:00Duterte’s Double-Edged Sword Diplomacy<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bV3Sb5Q3EW4/XWitevf7siI/AAAAAAAAFQs/v6w-4EIlzjwLTFJ9aj9cce6ad393JjD0ACLcBGAs/s1600/South%2BChina%2BMorning%2BPost.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bV3Sb5Q3EW4/XWitevf7siI/AAAAAAAAFQs/v6w-4EIlzjwLTFJ9aj9cce6ad393JjD0ACLcBGAs/s400/South%2BChina%2BMorning%2BPost.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo from South China Morning Post</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">By Chester B Cabalza</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Blogger's Notes:</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Commentary of an Academic</b><i> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>(Copyright @ 2019 by Chester B Cabalza. All Rights Reserved).</i></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Rodrigo Duterte, the first Philippine president from Mindanao, has recently
staged a climactic tribute mission to Beijing to discuss the volatile sea row
and harvest unfulfilled economic pledges from China. Taking a bolder step in
the negotiating table to Asia’s most powerful country, he elevates the Philippines’
national interests over sovereignty rights and maintaining peaceful regional
security architecture emanating from his promises to the Filipino people since
his election in 2016.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">His
fifth visit to Beijing bears a critical success in managing risk assessment and
treatment to the escalating global insecurity affecting the South China Sea
(SCS) including the proliferation of trade war between the United States and
China. Understandably, the ultimate goal of China reflects the goals of the
Communist Party of China (CPC), declaring the SCS as a core interest which may
become a prerogative of the CPC. Hence, the survival of the regime is premised
on the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) strengths and capability to consolidate
and unify China’s lost territories. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
October 2016, Chinese president Xi Jinping initially rolled out his red carpet
to Southeast Asia’s strongman. Duterte’s state visit pompously tested the
waters of friendship and repaired the broken lines held two months after the
Philippines won the arbitral award spelling out China’s excessive maritime
entitlements and violations on sovereign rights in the exclusive economic zones
(EEZs) of the Philippines. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">China
responded aggressively by militarizing the artificial islands that the People’s
Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) built in order to strengthen China’s anti access
and area denial (A2/AD) capabilities that would limit the strategic
capabilities of the United States including other Southeast Asian claimant-countries
to deter future offensive actions. Intermittent aggressions of continental China
to archipelagic Philippines spurred through constant close-in air and sea
surveillance and reconnaissance to unveil its own strategic ambiguity and gray
zone strategy. The ambiguity on how Beijing is communicating the issue on its
forceful defense of the SCS is a core national interest that is seen risky by
the international community. Thus, the strategic ambiguity intends to induce
uncertainties that will affect the decision making process of another white elephant
in the room which is the US foreign affairs with the Philippines.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">On
the other hand, it also allowed the former Davao City mayor to loosen up on
Beijing by accommodating a paradigm shift and preferential treatment for
Chinese plane seen in the country’s largest city in June 2018. The recurrent
passage of foreign ships through Philippines’ territorial waters without
securing a clearance from Philippine government became problematic recently. But
critics blamed Manila’s policy of silence on asserting the arbitral award while
Duterte seems to temporarily refrain from opposing on Chinese belligerence by
resorting to economic and diplomatic rapprochements at the strategic level
while the Philippines aspires for a robust defense posture by hedging to opposing
regional rivals, China and the United States, setting a strategic acquiescence
of economic gains and simultaneous military buildup.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
sum, the use of dashes and not solid lines illustrate the compromises that may
be accommodated in the future. Two strengths of China’s flexing of muscle
specify the militarization of occupied features in the SCS and the
modernization of the PLA and its maritime forces. Apparently, China has
invested heavily in technology development as a primary driver of China’s de
facto control of the contested waters.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Duterte’s
annual visits to the Middle Kingdom recreates the infancy of the Philippines
and China diplomatic relations that paved way in 1417 when a Sulu royalty from
Mindanao, Paduka Batara, also known as the “eastern king” sailed to Hangzhou
for bridging diplomacy to Ming dynasty’s Emperor Yongle. The emperor was
responsible in transferring the seat of power to Beijing, where the Filipino
and Chinese monarchs met. During Yongle’s reign, he marvelously built the
Forbidden City, amidst the dynasty’s maritime expansion while consolidating
China’s hard power.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
machination of economic security bolstered Beijing and Manila’s warming
relationship<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>for almost four years since
the two prominent Asian leaders inked a strategic partnership paving a way for
China’s growing regional centrality in the Indo-Pacific and solving China’s
Malacca dilemma on its economic efforts to tame Southeast Asian neighbors. The
Philippine president recognized China’s Belt Road Initiatives (BRI) by solidly
supporting it to finance his ‘Build, Build, Build’ infrastructure programs,
apparently shown through his annual participation to the Belt Road Forums (BRF)
in different cities of China since 2017 to this year. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
two populist and strongmen opted to foster a strategic partnership to slow down
coercing activities; however, there are a number of high and low armed
conflicts in the contested SCS that raised the bar of Chinese
dominance. The June 2019 ramming incident of Chinese militia to a Philippine
fishing vessel in the oil-rich Reed Bank in the Spratlys archipelago within the
Philippines’ EEZ had outwitted Manila’s soft power and the use of legal means.
Only in November 2017 when the two countries permitted a framework for joint
exploration undersea through a Mutual of Understanding (MOU) on Energy Cooperation
thereby suggesting a majority of share to the Philippines. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Lastly,
Duterte’s longest state visit yet to Beijing has tested his maturing diplomatic
and trading skills in dealing with the erudite President Xi to prove to the
Filipino people that China can also become a true friend of the Philippines.
Moving forward, Xi’s past visit to Manila laid down the controversial MOU on
Energy Cooperation as a roadmap for the joint oil and gas exploration of the two
countries amidst solving their differences in disputed Reed Bank. Meanwhile, Duterte’s
current visit to Beijing allows the next step for a possible Terms of Reference
(TOR) for proper implementation of the megaproject. Hence, the arbitral ruling
and joint exploration may reach an end result of successful risk management to
safeguard maritime rights and economic interests to realize a matured
cooperation with the acceleration of the Code of Conduct (CoC) in the SCS.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
</div>
Chester Cabalzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13860698970859998919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8382430770263435396.post-41188182225667528562019-08-29T09:19:00.000+08:002019-08-29T09:19:29.539+08:00Calauit Safari, Palawan<b style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Photographs by CBCabalza. Copyright © 2019 by Chester B. Cabalza. All Rights Reserved.</span></b><br />
<br />
These giraffes and zebras are island-born, second generation species from Kenyan safari. All of their parents died already after evolving in this island surviving from indigenous plants in Calauit since 1976! #feelslikegalapagos #darwinian #anthropologist<br />
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Chester Cabalzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13860698970859998919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8382430770263435396.post-3988032652554377152019-08-20T13:10:00.001+08:002019-08-25T23:37:04.729+08:00Beijing Spots Black Swan in Hong Kong’s Wave of Protest<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IqClT6bSG7Q/XVuAmLvL8qI/AAAAAAAAFO8/WAnxjCfQWEAE_4Tut-0g9ScJ71FE6yPXACLcBGAs/s1600/hk%2Bprotest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="550" data-original-width="1050" height="209" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IqClT6bSG7Q/XVuAmLvL8qI/AAAAAAAAFO8/WAnxjCfQWEAE_4Tut-0g9ScJ71FE6yPXACLcBGAs/s400/hk%2Bprotest.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo from The New York Times</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">By Chester B Cabalza</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Blogger's Notes:</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Commentary of an Academic</b><i> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>(Copyright @ 2019 by Chester B Cabalza. All Rights Reserved).</i></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Why
the hell Pepe the frog encroaches in all of Hong Kong’s graffiti?” </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">he asks a Hong Kongese from a chat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“It’s
a hate symbol for tyrant Chinese administrators!” </span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">she suspiciously
laments. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Aren’t
you Chinese, right?” <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Of
course not!”</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> she freaks out. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Hong
Kong is part of China but I’m a proud Hong Konger!”</i> she refutes and
continues, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“unlike the Chinese mainlanders,
people of HK have guaranteed freedoms – the right to protest, the right to a
press freedom, and freedom of speech!”</i> she pens with confidence, assuredly, provided by the Hong Kong Basic Law. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">End of chat. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Based from the 2016 demographic data of
Hong Kong, permanent residents in this fat Cantonese megacity hold a Hong Kong
Permanent Identity card as well as the right of abode. Populated by ethnic
Chinese from mainland China, mostly from newly-industrialized Guandong province;
Taiwan; and Macao; while largest non-Chinese residents being Filipinos and Indonesians
(just watch Hello, Love, Goodbye, for that matter). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It’s a fact that Hong Kong belongs to
China, but it has its own currency, political system, cultural identity; and, considered
as an international smart city. Fortified by a policy dubbed as “one country,
two systems” since its handover at midnight on 1 July 1997 to the People’s
Republic of China. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The now-shelved, controversial extradition
bill opened a lot of Pandora’s Box to China’s 22 years old rule in Hong Kong, unifying
permanent and non-permanent residents to demand for full democracy and police
accountability against Beijing’s Tiananmen option on the use of military force
to quell and suppress the escalating ahimsa protest. Certainly, what started as
a movement against a controversial law has expanded into something much bigger security concerns.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Undeniably, Beijing is losing its face
again in the international community for its lack of strategic foresight in taming the shrew. Hong Kong, a former British colony and an economic gem that inspired Deng Xiaoping, including his successors, to dream bigger for China by setting up a number of colossal and coastal economic hub. Currently, overpopulated and prosperous to rival western
business and financial acumen by expanding their economic global clout. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The unstoppable movement in Hong Kong
turns out to be a black swan. Black swans are rare. It has high-impact events
that have large magnitude and consequence in history. Black swan can be used as
a tool to see the future that can be volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous
in nature; occurring in frequency that may cause harm in the anarchic
international system. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">The belief that swans are always white. It becomes apparent and unique when the white swan turns out to be a black swan that carries a metaphor of fragility in any system of thought. China has seen several black swans from their own Chinese Lake from the Opium War to the Tiananmen massacre. However, a post-modern black swan spotted in Hong Kong can become a litmus test for China's bid for political and economic superpower. Nonetheless, the occurrences of black swan events are increasing and accelerating at a fast-paced in this changing and uncertain times ruled by strongmen and populist leaders. Although, black swans randomly appear by chance, hence, it sometimes impossible to predict. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">If China fails to catch with approving grace the black swan, it will keep on spreading a swine flu to Hong Kong dissents from today and even tomorrow. These black swans are contagious that it may even swim to as far as Taiwan, the Philippines, and other neighboring countries to challenge Beijing's concocted harmonious society!</span></div>
Chester Cabalzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13860698970859998919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8382430770263435396.post-18522637442918272532019-08-15T08:15:00.000+08:002019-08-15T08:18:04.366+08:00Coron, Palawan (Paradise Made on Earth)<b style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"> Photographs by CBCabalza. Copyright © 2019 by Chester B. Cabalza. All Rights Reserved.</span></b><br />
<br />
<i>"Thank God, you blessed the Philippines with a paradise"</i><br />
<br />
I have more superlative words to describe Coron! Arguably, the best paradise made on Earth. Coron is a magical, wonderful, and colorful islands, limestones, and beaches! You're so beautiful, Coron!<br />
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<br />Chester Cabalzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13860698970859998919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8382430770263435396.post-82503439172692751512019-08-14T09:47:00.000+08:002019-08-15T07:30:59.632+08:00Luzon Island needs ‘Synergy of Stakeholders’ in Combating Terrorism<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RdBx-q7yd_w/XVNoAZHwM2I/AAAAAAAAFNY/-wEcAQsrq3AoHkMPzGCGcNWdCZbnXnWuACLcBGAs/s1600/ilocos05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="315" data-original-width="420" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RdBx-q7yd_w/XVNoAZHwM2I/AAAAAAAAFNY/-wEcAQsrq3AoHkMPzGCGcNWdCZbnXnWuACLcBGAs/s400/ilocos05.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo from Ilocandia</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">By Chester B Cabalza</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Blogger's Notes:</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Commentary of an Academic</b><i> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>(Copyright @ 2019 by Chester B Cabalza. All Rights Reserved).</i></span><br />
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Four
days ago, the Minor Basilica of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary of Manaoag,
beefed up its contingency measures. Yesterday, the city government of
Tuguegarao, home to an 18th-century Baroque church and is a gateway to Cagayan
Valley's Our Lady of Piat, has temporarily suspended a “no helmet, no travel”
policy until August 20, due to threats of terrorism. This concern arises after
at least two alleged terrorist crusaders from Sri Lanka have sneaked into the
Philippines to train local militants on making bombs and attacking churches and
other soft targets north of the Philippines.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Only
last January 27<sup>th</sup> this year, jihadi terrorist suicide bombers in Jolo’s
Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, killed at least 20 churchgoers and 111
people.</span> <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
use of improvised explosive devices containing ammonium nitrate pipe bombs that
exploded inside and outside the church may be similar to the tactic used by
terrorists in the 2002 Bali blasts that ebbed fear by inflicting additional
casualties to first responders in a widespread act of violence to Filipinos in
southern Mindanao.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
Easter bombing in Colombo at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka, presumed to be
an Islamic retaliation to Christians, after the bloody Christchurch mosque
shootings in New Zealand by a white supremacist, confusedly created a breed of
terrorists. This time, crusader cities is used by the ISIS in describing target
areas to fuel what they call 'Bandar Crusade,' or war between Muslim and
Christian, spotting on crusader churches to attack and bomb, for all its
historic and heritage value to Christian believers. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Trailing
the holy grail of heritage churches from Vigan to Laoag, undeniably, the Ilocandia
region prides itself the UNESCO world heritage house of worship in Paoay and
other iconic cathedrals of former Spanish stronghold in Nueva Segovia. Not in
the list is the Nuestra Señora de Peñafrancia in Bicol region, south of Metro
Manila, which will be celebrating its famed fluvial parade next month, could
also be a possible target in sowing terror and violence from crusader
terrorists. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Luzon
in general, with all the strings of pilgrimage sites from northern and southern
Luzon, is definitely vulnerable to any acts of Islamic terrorism, notwithstanding
the fact, that these destinations are resilient to communist terrorism. The
need for ‘synergy of stakeholders’ and the ‘whole of nation approach’ in
preventing violent extremism and combating terrorism includes participation
from the local government units in preparing contingency measures for civilians’
public safety and the community’s possible destruction from the havoc of
terror as part of the human-induced disaster risk management, aside from the effective counterintelligence of the military and proper law enforcement
of the police. We need to empower all stakeholders in peace-building and
conflict prevention. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Certainly
the foreign fighter and suicide bombing threats have tremendously evolved. It
has morphed into a global network that has turned into a cottage industry for
small terror group actors. This vivid and wide-range networking of foreign
fighters fostered by global religious brotherhood has infiltrated the online
recruitment and tactical operations of terror clusters, notwithstanding the
financial and intelligence support of each group. Ferocious female and children
foreign warriors are used in this strategic warfare redounding to their own
legal advantage for which the presence of local and international laws can
protect them from felony.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
silverlining in understanding terrorism and violent extremism have brought a
mix of socioeconomic marginalization, political corruption, and ignorance
towards crusaders and foreign fighters which have created a time bomb for the
Philippines, particularly in addressing the escalating security threat. Hence,
the presence of foreign suicide bombers and fighters in the Philippine soil
hinders the elusive peace hoped for by Christians, Muslims and the indigenous
peoples in Mindanao. We have seen the shift in DAESH’s operational methods from
caliphate-building to waging insurgency as terrorist groups persist and
continue to demonstrate resilience by employing all means to spread deceptive
and violent ideologies. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Finally,
the holistic effort for the reintegration process of foreign suicide bombers
and fighters should bring synergy of efforts from different stakeholders
including the government, civil society and the local community. Education and
equal employment opportunities should be addressed to widen the awareness of
Filipino citizens drawn into poverty and ignorance. The Philippine government
should also consider the maritime border security along its northern and southern coastlines
that would determine who and what is allowed and denied in access to the
state’s territory that creates a confluence of actions from various
stakeholders in upholding its territorial integrity and national
sovereignty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
Chester Cabalzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13860698970859998919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8382430770263435396.post-24187368114858573482019-07-16T16:44:00.001+08:002019-07-16T16:56:08.698+08:00The Hague Ruling’s Strategic Acquiescence Ensnared as ‘Philippinedization’<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-t40yaB4rWK4/XS2O8KArvlI/AAAAAAAAFKw/9-zFHGPi0wIPUvfZEP6wZWQeNwQaHnUjgCLcBGAs/s1600/maxresdefault.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-t40yaB4rWK4/XS2O8KArvlI/AAAAAAAAFKw/9-zFHGPi0wIPUvfZEP6wZWQeNwQaHnUjgCLcBGAs/s400/maxresdefault.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo from Youtube</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">By Chester B Cabalza</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Blogger's Notes:</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Commentary of an Academic</b><i> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>(Copyright @ 2019 by Chester B Cabalza. All Rights Reserved).</i></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
Philippines commemorated the third anniversary of The Hague ruling on July 12,
a landmark case awarded to the Southeast Asian archipelagic country penned by
the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that invalidated China’s
historic rights to resources within the sea areas falling within the debunked
nine-dash line. The 501-page milestone decision explicitly cited China’s violations
on sovereign rights in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone by interfering
with fishing and petroleum exploration, building man-made islands, and failing
to prevent Chinese fishermen from fishing in the zone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">On
the eve when the Philippines won a maritime entitlement, observers see it as
the beginning of an end. The case arbitrarily has ended with no enforcement
seal but it only has intensified power play between China and the US, two
opposing titans, eventually dwarfing the Philippines. In a toss of tight
competition of who controls the South China Sea and which country gets more
resources, it clearly redounds to China’s grand strategy with ease despite
inflicting harm to the marine environment and destroying evidence of the
natural condition of features in one of the world’s busiest sea lanes of
communications. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Last
March 13, two respected Filipino leaders lodged a 17-page complaint for
environmental damage in the South China Sea and persecution of Filipino fishermen
by Chinese officials before the International Criminal Court (ICC), two days
before the first Asian country officially departs from the independent judicial
body, founded under the mantle of the Rome Statute, giving jurisdiction to
prosecute global leaders for crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression. However
Beijing discredits the accusation, notwithstanding the fact that the two state
parties are now ICC non-members. The grievance itself becomes a strong reminder
echoing the Philippines’ unfinished business at how China treats a strategic
partner despite the latter won a case in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in
July 2016 at The Hague. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
Philippine Navy builds up a defense posture through an acquisition of two
missile-capable frigates armed with sensors and weapons launched on its 121<sup>st</sup>
founding anniversary last May 27 to bring into the high seas dignified
surface-to-air missiles patrol ships. The realization came after a series of
maritime humiliation and insecurities experienced from the 1995 Chinese
structures on Mischief Reef in the Spartlys until the 2012 Scarborough Shoal
standoff. The two major maritime and territorial insults to Philippines’
national sovereignty and territorial integrity succumbs for the passage of the
Revised AFP Modernization Act of 2012, replacing the original version crafted
17 years in between.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">But
on June 9, three days before the Philippines celebrated its Independence Day, Defense
Secretary Delfin Lorenzana revealed that a Chinese vessel hit the anchored
Filipino vessel F/B GEMVIR 1 near Reed Bank, leaving 22 Filipino fishermen
almost drowned in the open sea, but later rescued by a Vietnamese vessel. The
episodic saga saw China’s overriding use of muscle flexing of hard power by securing
the Spartlys where the oil-rich Reed Bank is located, outwitting the
Philippines’ soft power or the use of lawfare. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
only recourse Beijing is good at comes on by exerting a hard power by militarizing
the disputed islands showcasing a use of force over the presence of hundreds of
Chinese militia near and within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
China's success of building the sea wall contributed to the massive
terraforming accomplishments that buoys up in the expansive Chinese Lake
conjoined with militarized acumen and economic perspicacity. It certainly
cultivated a complex security environment that weak nation-states were caught
in surprise and shock beyond China’s calculated salami-slicing attack. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Meanwhile,
the Philippines’ policy of silence on asserting the arbitral award hounds the
rapprochement of President Rodrigo Duterte on China’s encroachment in the West
Philippine Sea. The recalibration of foreign policy in pursuit of defining the
Philippines’ national interests strengthens further the giant neighbor’s gray
zone strategy. It precisely shows a strategic acquiescence ensnared by Duterte’s
unsophisticated strategy in dealing with Xi Jinping’s erudite scheme that
offered a mixture of both danger and opportunity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
strategic acquiescence combines economic gains and simultaneous military
buildup leading one to coin the term, “Philippinedization,” which may well be
appropriate especially in light of the historic Hague ruling that Duterte
temporarily set aside. It is a process whereby a weaker state, backed by a
powerful country, goes through great lengths in temporarily refraining from
opposing a neighboring great power by resorting to economic and diplomatic
rapprochements at the strategic level, but strengthening its national security
infrastructure on the operational level with an eye for potential conflict in
the foreseeable future.</span></div>
Chester Cabalzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13860698970859998919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8382430770263435396.post-42655911904515063132019-05-21T21:06:00.005+08:002019-05-22T11:44:57.298+08:00Philippine Navy Beefs Up in the Battle of the South China Sea<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XxSeeZiM8XA/XOP3w_cjK6I/AAAAAAAAFIA/LAYBoPTUNFk627BPSSS69P3bQcjbfHWnQCLcBGAs/s1600/maxresdefault.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XxSeeZiM8XA/XOP3w_cjK6I/AAAAAAAAFIA/LAYBoPTUNFk627BPSSS69P3bQcjbfHWnQCLcBGAs/s400/maxresdefault.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo from PN</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">By Chester B Cabalza</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Blogger's Notes:</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Commentary of an Academic</b><i> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>(Copyright @ 2019 by Chester B Cabalza. All Rights Reserved).</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">After
a hundred of years, two decades, and another year of stretching a naval muscle,
the Philippines, touted as an archipelagic nation but not yet as a maritime
power in Southeast Asia, will launch a steel-cutting ceremony of two missile-capable
frigates armed with sensors and weapons, adept of detecting and neutralizing
surface, sub-surface and air threats on May 23 at the shipyard of South Korea’s
Hyundai Heavy Industries. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Coinciding
with a joint celebration of the Philippine Navy’s 121<sup>st</sup> founding
anniversary on May 27 and the country’s Independence Day on June 12, the 107-meter
combat ships baptized as BRP Jose Rizal and BRP Antonio Luna, a bonhomie of
symbols for brain and brawn, apparently are designed to be operated with
anti-submarine helicopters cap with heavy missile and torpedo weaponry due for
2020 and 2021. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As a naval
warfare service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), currently
possessing a strength of 24,000 active service personnel, including the
7,500-strong Marine Corps, it brings to Philippines’ high seas dignified surface-to-air missiles patrol ships far from the initial small fleet of eight
Spanish steam launches captured by General Emilio Aguinaldo when he established
a naval force emanating from the pages of the Biak-na-Bato Constitution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The turn-around
AFP modernization story encapsulated from the foresight on increased
territorial defense capability after a series of maritime insecurities starting
from the 1995 Chinese structures on Mischief Reef in the Spartlys until the
2012 Scarborough Shoal standoff. The two major maritime and territorial insults
to Philippines’ national sovereignty and territorial integrity succumbs for the
passage of the Revised AFP Modernization Act of 2012, replacing the original
version crafted 17 years in between. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">On the eve when
the Philippines won a landmark maritime case against China penned by the
Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, observers see it as the beginning
of an end. The case arbitrarily has ended with no enforcement seal but it only
has intensified power play between China and the US, two opposing titans,
eventually dwarfing the Philippines.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As Manila
grapples for an independent foreign policy amidst closer ties with Beijing and
Moscow against Washington’s allies from Tokyo, New Delhi and the European Union
combined, in case a naval warfare erupts amongst major powers in the South
China Sea, which powerful navy in the world becomes supreme in terms of assets
and capabilities? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Of the powerful
navies worldwide – the United States, Russia, China, India and Japan are
perceived to be the mighty top five in the following order. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Still
the reigning superpower, the U.S. boasts of possessing 72 all nuclear-powered
submarines, 63 destroyers and 11 large aircraft carriers. Compared to China’s 69
submarines of which only 10 are nuclear-powered, 34 destroyers and two aircraft
fleets. The U.S. has survived two world wars unlike China’s inexperience which
has not yet led a world war victory. Two of 2019’s best fighter jets are
manufactured in the U.S. fuelling the increased sales of F-35 Lightning II and
Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor. Furthermore, the world’s biggest aircraft fleet
comes from the United States’ Ford-class, a colossal nuclear-powered warship,
outsizing China’s Liaoning. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As
the Philippines constantly thinks of deterrence, the state of mind brought about
by the existence of a credible threat of unacceptable counteraction, it must
exude a power projection or the ability to apply all or some of the country’s
elements of national power to rapidly and effectively deploy and sustain forces
in and from multiple dispersed locations to respond to crises and contribute to
deterrence while enhancing regional stability.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The purpose of
the armed forces of a small state is not to wage war but to avert it. There is
a significant difference even if the task of war prevention implies a credible
ability to fight. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The main reason
for this is that small state cannot hope to achieve victory in war in the
strictly military sense. Instead, the purpose of the war is to end it on
acceptable terms. The armed forces of the small state contribute to averting
war first by maintaining the sovereignty of the state and by enforcing national
jurisdiction in peacetime, in an efficient and credible manner. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Secondly, the
armed forces are an instrument of the state in crisis management, not least for
their deterrent effect on the opposition. Deterrence works when the costs of
armed aggression in the mind of potential aggressor seem larger than the
benefits of going to war, so that in the end he decides to keep the peace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In this
perceived Battle of the South China Sea, war is not an immediate solution. And
in war no one wins and everybody losses. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">But if there are
two scenarios in which cases China can displace the United States and its
allied friends in the Philippines to become victor to the heart of Philippine
government and lessen Filipinos’ anti-Chinese sentiments in one of Southeast
Asia’s most acculturated countries. </span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">For China, the win-win solution will only
happen if the Philippines sets side the sovereignty issue in the South China
Sea and bandwagons with the new regional power through joint exploration, joint
conservation of the environment, joint development and tourism, and sit down to
incessantly engage dialogue with China by sharing with them their vision and will
in the newly concocted geopolitical Indo-Pacific region.</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Or for China to cleverly fight in the battle while courting for best allies like Russia with superior naval assets and capabilities with enduring experience in world wars. </span></div>
Chester Cabalzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13860698970859998919noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8382430770263435396.post-61030050449649366712019-05-17T13:50:00.001+08:002019-05-17T13:53:24.502+08:00Versailles Palace, France<br />
"It was like the first time I visited Versailles!"<br />
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<br />Chester Cabalzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13860698970859998919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8382430770263435396.post-75077297525382512272019-05-15T19:16:00.003+08:002019-05-22T13:22:55.871+08:00Philippines, Still A Damaged Culture?<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-acYJNgZqDdc/XNv1Ag3W3mI/AAAAAAAAFE4/9PN8GsDQDiUI8lnWlOkYsI4CYES9H7X3gCLcBGAs/s1600/Magic-12-May14-720-pm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-acYJNgZqDdc/XNv1Ag3W3mI/AAAAAAAAFE4/9PN8GsDQDiUI8lnWlOkYsI4CYES9H7X3gCLcBGAs/s400/Magic-12-May14-720-pm.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo from GMA-7</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">By Chester B Cabalza</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Blogger's Notes:</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Commentary of an Academic</b><i> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>(Copyright @ 2019 by Chester B Cabalza. All Rights Reserved).</i></span><br />
<br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The six-week immersion of American
journalist James Fallows in Manila painted a bleak imagery of the Philippines
worldwide in November 1987 after he published a cultic article in The Atlantic
magazine about Filipinos’ damaged culture. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The political environment sets a high
note for saintly Cory Aquino, housewife mathematician of the lone winning opposition
Benigno Aquino in the 1967 senatorial race, and gracefully slaying the supremacy
of power duo tawdry pet dictators Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos in 1986.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Three decades and two years after James
Fallows’ essay, does the existential curse still hounds Filipinos? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Popular and widely approved Rodrigo
Duterte, the Philippines 16<sup>th</sup> president, fortifies his power, despite
his absence in the ballot, has considerably wiped out the opposition while his
allies recently sweep dominance in the midterm elections apparently seen as a referendum for upending a supermajority clout at the chamber with three more
years to [un]conventionally pursue his promises to the people under a six-year
term. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In a twist of fate, Imee Marcos wins a
senate seat for the first time after her former senator brother, Bongbong
Marcos acts in limbo contesting a vice presidential recount. The Filipinos’
forgiving culture and short-term memory, recalled by the late venerated Asian patriarch
Lee Kuan Yew, comes to realization in the Philippines' maturing democracy. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Former president Benigno Aquino Jr.’s
endorsement has failed to cast magic for his outnumbered Otso-Diretso (straight
eight) senatorial slate creating anxiety and fear from loyal followers
circulating options of #migration in social media despite decency and maturity
from losing candidates to be on guard and continuously fight for the country’s
future. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Nine of 12 open seats in the upper
house, half of the country’s Senate, supports the president’s most
controversial plans. But does this represent our damaged culture? Or what set
of values have we imbibed from the exercise to choose leaders? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Anthropologist Frank Lynch who later on
renounced his American citizenship to become a Filipino citizen concludes in
his 1962 pioneering study that no values are uniquely Filipino. The Lynchian
perspective carries the belief that one should not expect every value to be
uniquely Filipino because notable differences in value systems are caused not
so much by differences in the individual values as by the differences in
ranking and emphasis.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Eminent anthropologist F. Landa Jocano
wrote a powerful paper on the Notion of Values in Filipino Culture debunking
Franck Lynch’s belief that there are no uniquely Filipino values. He is merited
for his contributory knowledge on pamantayan or social standards from the
holistic and higher echelon of kahalagaan or importance. The line serves as the
basis for measuring the level of quality, excellence or sameness in grouping
things together. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If the midterm elections show our social
standards in choosing our leaders, then what does it tell about our culture and
national values? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The pre-war Commonwealth era under
Manuel Quezon, the Philippines second president, gave us the first picture of a
country without an opposition, when it failed to win a single seat in the 1938
senatorial midterm polls that allowed block voting; hence, he has had an
upperhand at that time in framing the Philippine Constitution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Is this a prelude to Mr. Duterte’s
vision of a federal Philippines? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">‘We are our choices’ admonishes French
political activist Jean-Paul Satre to everyone. The election results are our
own making caused by archaic and absurd electoral system that patronizes entertainment
over excellence and popularity over platforms. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Filipino voters are ably to be blamed
for not choosing the best and the brightest despite a number of honest,
educated, and candidates with integrity in the unprecedented high voters
turnout in 2019; and in spite of a 78 percent average election turnout since 2010 to
2016. Social media along with the traditional media manage to carry politicians
from the dominance of the woke generation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">Honestly, the Philippines still suffers a damaged culture! And it's a shame to all of us!</span></span></div>
<br />Chester Cabalzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13860698970859998919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8382430770263435396.post-35888195384469696372019-05-07T12:28:00.002+08:002019-05-22T13:29:37.504+08:00Battle of the 5G Network: Dude, where’s the Philippines? <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_QkbVYG7Noo/XNEJR0-KByI/AAAAAAAAFEE/IMMe1P-dvbIKVfSsl-qXhlOIYIlqcuiPwCLcBGAs/s1600/FS.Covers.Nov-Dec2018-8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="628" data-original-width="1200" height="208" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_QkbVYG7Noo/XNEJR0-KByI/AAAAAAAAFEE/IMMe1P-dvbIKVfSsl-qXhlOIYIlqcuiPwCLcBGAs/s400/FS.Covers.Nov-Dec2018-8.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo from FlipScience</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">By Chester B Cabalza</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Blogger's Notes:</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Commentary of an Academic</b><i> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>(Copyright @ 2019 by Chester B Cabalza. All Rights Reserved).</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><br /></i></span>
<br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The classic mockery on the state of the
Philippines’ internet came when global e-commerce icon Jack Ma, founder of the successful
multinational technology conglomerate Alibaba Group, tried and tested himself Asia
Pacific’s slowest average internet speed (according to Akamai Technologies
Inc.’s State of the Internet Connectivity Report) in October 2017 when he
visited Manila. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The wake-up call was shared by chastened
Chief Executive Officers of the two leading telecommunications firms in the
country (PLDT and Globe), at that time owning 5.5 mbps only, falling short of
the global average internet connection speed of 7.2 mbps (Mbps is short for
megabits per second – a measure of network transmission or data transfer speed.
A megabit is equal to one million bits). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Internet access in the Philippines falls
as a “value-added service” giving a leeway to internet providers on their own
terms under the 24-year-old Philippine Public Telecommunications Policy Law.
But lately consumers are demanding to reclassify it as a “basic
telecommunications service” and put teeth to the law by compelling internet
providers of quality connection speeds and affordable cost or else suffer stringent
fines from government regulators. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The UK-based firm ‘We Are Social’
accounts that the Philippines has 76 million Filipino netizens from a whopping
3.5 billion social media users worldwide. Majority of Filipino social media
users are from woke generation spending almost 10 hours average daily of their time
using the internet via any device making it highest in the world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As the world embraces the Industry 4.0
where computers are connected and suavely evolve that it can
communicate and make decisions without human intervention, combining the
internet of things and internet of systems or enhanced with</span><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">smart
and autonomous systems fueled by data and machine learning, i</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">t is fit and proper that as the
cyberspace (known as the fifth domain) advances, a new cellular generation must
occupy the void. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">The 5G (short for 5th Generation) is a commonly used term for
certain advanced wireless systems. Defined in late 2018 as any system using
"5G NR" (5G New Radio) software as "5G”. It follows 2G, 3G and
4G and their respective associated technologies. The 1</span><sup style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">st</sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> generation
introduced mobility. The 2</span><sup style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">nd</sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> generation [or: 2G] brought us into the
digital world. The 3</span><sup style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">rd</sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> generation, in turn, introduced mobile data.
And the 4</span><sup style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> generation created the mobile broadband world in which
we live today. Hence, the dawn of the 5G battle for supremacy.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">There are only five companies in the
world offering 5G radio hardware and 5G systems for carriers: Huawei, ZTE,
Nokia, Samsung, and Ericsson. Samsung claimed to have supplied the greatest
number of 5G base stations to South Korean operators. According to IPlytics
(patent analytics firm), companies in China have applied for roughly 34% of the
world’s major 5G patents as of March 2019, compared with South Korea’s 25%, and
14% each for the United States and Finland. Sweden stood at nearly 8%, and
Japan at almost 5%, while Taiwan, Canada, the U.K., and Italy rounded out the top
10 countries, each with under 1% shares.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Reports are told that today’s cellular
and Wi-Fi networks rely on microwaves – a type of electromagnetic radiation
utilizing frequencies up to 6 gigahertz (GHz) in order to wirelessly transmit
voice and data.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This era of wireless
frequency is almost over making room for new 5G applications will require
using new spectrum bands in much higher frequency ranges above 6 GHz to 100 GHz
and beyond, utilizing submillimeter and millimeter waves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Digital strategists forecast that 5G
wireless technology is a game-changer, transforming every business and every
industry, just as the internet once did. Weaponizing the 5G network becomes also a national security issue. A case in point when British prime minister Theresa
May abruptly sacked defense secretary Gavin Williamson for divulging state
secrets on a plan to give China's Huawei limited access to Britain's
next-generation communications network. Huawei, the world's biggest producer of
telecoms equipment, is under intense scrutiny after the United States told
allies not to use the provider for fear it could be a vehicle for Chinese
spying.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Dude, where’s the Philippines? </span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In December
last year, PLDT and its wireless arm Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) are set
to sign more 5G partnership agreements with technology, industry and enterprise
partners, and pilot more 5G-powered digital services, and launch more Smart 5G
cities across the country in 2019. Given the versatility of the 5G, the telecom
giant thinks that its focus for future 5G services is initially for enterprise
customers, for whom it will mean completely new use cases, like with drones,
internet of things and other specialized services. On the other hand, Globe
telecom deems that through the 5G network, it will help to deploy fixed
wireless broadband at a fiber speed that boast of higher speeds, lower latency,
and better capacity. Globe is currently piloting Narrow Band-Internet of Things
(NB-IoT) technology while enhancing its mobile data services.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Is the Philippines really prepared for
the 5G network? What do you think?</span></div>
Chester Cabalzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13860698970859998919noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8382430770263435396.post-20642930290563589642019-05-03T17:05:00.006+08:002019-05-03T17:48:34.207+08:00Assessment of Force Requirement of Philippines' Capability and National Interest in the South China Sea<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b style="font-family: times, "times new roman", serif;">By Chester B Cabalza</b><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Blogger's Notes:</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Commentary of an Academic</b><i> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>(Copyright @ 2019 by Chester B Cabalza. All Rights Reserved).</i></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Philippines is an archipelagic
nation of 7,107 islands covering 800,000 square miles or about 30 million
hectares. The country does not share any land borders with neighboring
countries; instead it is bordered by the Pacific Ocean in the east, the South
China Sea in the west, the Celebes Sea in the south, and the Bashi Channel up
north. In 2012, the Philippines’ island territory increased by 13 million
hectares when the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea approved the
Philippines’ claim to Benham Rise; a seismically active region and volcanic
ridge located 250 kilometers off the northern coastline of Dinapigue, Isabela. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Interestingly, these vast surroundings
are complemented by a naval and air military that has no force to project. The
Philippines possesses an ill-equipped, deteriorated, and obsolete Navy and Air
Force in Asia. Military spending of the Philippines, especially the scale for
its navy upgrade and modernization, is significantly less than Vietnam,
Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. That being said, there now exists
a huge capability asymmetry between the Philippines and its neighbors in
Southeast Asia, thus, it can only do so much to achieve parity with the surface
and air force capabilities. It can possibly consider shore-based missiles, mine
warfare, and submarine warfare to level the Asian playing field.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The limited resources of the Armed
Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and other affiliate law enforcement agencies
also pose daunting challenges in securing the vast Philippine archipelago. For
one, the Philippine Navy is responsible for the naval defense of the seabed and
other submarine areas. In reality, the country’s current naval assets and
capabilities are disproportionate to the requirements of securing an island
nation especially in the face of perceived threats emanating from our
continuing maritime and territorial dispute in the West Philippine Sea. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Despite the Revised AFP Modernization
that has three horizons to meet an effective minimum credible defense posture,
including its shift from territorial to internal defense, it seeks the
acquisition of further capabilities and other force requirements as means to
design new competencies and force to structure certain elements.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Securing Philippines’ Vital Interests<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
South China Sea has proven oil reserves of seven (7) billion barrels and an
estimated 900 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, a potentially huge bounty.
The risk of conflict in the South China Sea is significant and may actually
occur. Freedom of navigation operations in the region is also a contentious
issue. These tensions are shaping and being shaped by rising apprehensions
about the growth of China’s military power and its regional intentions.
Apparently China has embarked on a substantial modernization of its maritime
paramilitary forces as well as naval capabilities to enforce its sovereignty
and jurisdiction claims by force if necessary. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
Kalayaan Island Group is a group of over fifty features and their surrounding
waters that belong to the Philippines, located in what is internationally known
as the Spartly Islands. Officially, the KIG is not the same as the Spartlys, as
there are features in the Spartlys that are not part of the KIG. Parts of the
Spratlys Islands lie just over 100 miles from the Philippines and more than
1,000 miles from China. The Philippines currently controls five islands, two
reefs and two sandbars. Pag-asa is the largest island occupied by the country.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">For
the Philippines, vital interests lie in territorial integrity and sovereignty,
and the rights to exploit both marine and energy sources. An example challenges
rising from the South China Sea disputes is the oil exploration efforts that
started in 2010 and have been put on hold since 2015 for Service Contract Areas
58, 72 (Recto Bank) and 75 due to the lingering disputes and the continuous
presence of the Chinese government vessels at Scarborough Shoal. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Forcible
takeover of any of our occupied islands without a strong deterrent capability
to defend these critical features will give momentum to potential aggressors
which are also claimant countries in the South China Sea and will no doubt
continue to exploit the resources in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and may
eventually deny the Philippines its use of the sea or by using it there is a
plausible scenario of war or military operations against the country. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Possible
takeover can also be in the offing if mismanaged solutions are not met. The
Philippines should constantly think of deterrence or a state of mind brought
about by the existence of a credible threat of unacceptable counteraction.
There should be a power projection or the ability to apply all or some of the
country’s elements of national power to rapidly and effectively deploy and
sustain forces in and from multiple dispersed locations to respond to crises
and contribute to deterrence while enhancing regional stability. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
purpose of the armed forces of a small state is not to wage war but to avert
it. There is a significant difference even if the task of war prevention
implies a credible ability to fight. The main reason for this is that small
state cannot hope to achieve victory in war in the strictly military sense.
Instead, the purpose of the war is to end it on acceptable terms. The armed
forces of the small state contribute to averting war first by maintaining the
sovereignty of the state and by enforcing national jurisdiction in peacetime, in
an efficient and credible manner. Second, the armed forces are an instrument of
the state in crisis management, not least for their deterrent effect on the
opposition. Deterrence works when the costs of armed aggression in the mind of
potential aggressor seem larger than the benefits of going to war, so that in
the end he decides to keep the peace.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Sensors, Transport, Shooters <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
enhancing transparency and accountability while pursuing opportunities for
stable security structures, the AFP should improve its human, organization and
information capital. It shall build a culture of jointness, establish an
integrated secure communications and information system to institutionalize
integrated joint logistics support systems, and develop a professional and
highly motivated regular and reserve force. Highly competent and motivated
professionals should spearhead the crafting of sound and appropriate maritime
doctrines leading to the responsive naval reserve forces; and the same
professionals who should be building the corps of the same force.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">There
is a need to operationalize naval support systems, facilities and capabilities
that contribute to the attainment of optimal level of operational readiness.
The Navy and Air Force should provide a secure maritime environment and satisfy
its stakeholders. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">A
naval strategy to fight an asymmetric conflict is the object of naval warfare
where there is a competition to control Sea Lines of Communications (SLOC)
including the commercial and economic interests of an adversary. It
strategically includes the control of maritime communications, whether for
commercial or military purposes. The primordial object of the fleet is to
secure these SLOCS and put the enemy fleet out of action. Thus, the size of
one’s fleet is not much of a factor. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">A
small naval force is unlikely to win a major fleet engagement but it still
could achieve significant results through minor naval actions, such as attacks
on sea lanes and coastal raids. Victory at sea is dependent on the relative strength
of one’s own fleet and the exploitation of one’s positions such as naval bases,
commercial and areas where maritime trade routes converge.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">In
this view, operational fleet positioning allows a small naval force to restrict
he size and scale of enemy opposition, creating favourable conditions for
battle. Thus, luring an enemy fleet out into battle in an operating area where
one has all the advantages is more economical than mounting search-and-destroy
missions for huge fleet battles. For instance, cruiser-type vessels, which have
sufficient endurance for long independent voyages, enough firepower to defeat
enemy commerce raiders and protect SLOCs.</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">From
a macro perspective, the Philippine capability lacks notably air capability,
sea and air transport and Command and Control, Communications, Computers,
Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance. These investments are required
for the AFP to achieve certain credible fighting force. This comes despite
Philippine investments in modernization such as those of BrahMos – India’s
supersonic missile that is a short-range ramjet supersonic cruise missile that
can be launched from submarine, ships, aircraft, or land.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
the course of submarine acquisition, the Philippine Navy should first acquire
the basing and support facilities before buying actual submarines. There should
also the creation of unit/s dedicated to submarine operations. Aside from
support facilities, basing, and a dedicated unit, the Philippine Navy should
craft corresponding doctrines, systems, and procedures for submarine
operations. Select PN personnel would have to be trained for submarine
operations and the necessary effectors such as missiles, mines, and torpedoes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">For
territorial defense, submarines have deterrent presence and varied weapons load
ensure lethality against various targets. For surveillance and defense of
offshore platforms, submarines can be used for covertly monitor and defend
these installations. It can be used for monitoring the presence of other
submarines. Even for internal security operations, submarines can provide
Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) against terrorist routes,
and perform stealth insertion of special forces. Submarines can also be used to
augment existing naval capabilities. As an essential fleet component, it can
perform effectively in coastal defense, sea denial, and power projection.
Critical components include weapon systems, sensors, fire control systems, navigation
and control systems, pressure hull, environmental control, and propulsion. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">But generally, the increasing
preponderance of submarines is a proven technology with deterrent and strategic
impact. The utility of submarines is a strategic tool employed in an asymmetric
fashion. But Philippine Navy’s readiness to develop submarine capabilities in
terms of personnel competencies needed to operate submarines completely
different from surface warships. Prospective submarine crew should be
physically, emotionally, mentally and psychologically prepared for the
job.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
essence, the lack of resources for the AFP has produced excellent small unit
formations, as a result of ingenuity; however, overall combat capability is
extremely limited. The AFP lacks basic secure tactical communications coverage
across the operational zones and relies heavily on commercial
telecommunications networks. Joint force interoperability is hampered by the
lack of a secure networking capability.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Command and Control <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
command and control in a military organization is the exercise of authority and
direction by a properly designated commanding officer over assigned and
attached forces in the accomplishment of the mission. It is the system that
empowers designated personnel to exercise lawful authority and direction over
assigned forces for the accomplishment of mission and tasks. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
capacitating the Philippines to pursue strategic interests and sophisticated
tactical operations in the exercise of securing and protecting the country’s
external defense, there is a need for certain prescription through promotion of
harmonious relationships with neighbors and the rest of the world. The
development of a defense capability to protect sovereignty and strategic
maritime interests are observed but the means to achieve this are through the
promotion of maritime security, protection and defense of the integrity of
marine resources, and strengthening of the maritime security posture as part of
the external defense plan. Deterrence is absolutely needed but if deterrence
fails, the country must be prepared for a credible ability to fight and win. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Deterrence
operations are geared toward convincing adversaries not to take actions that
threaten vital interests by means of decisive influence over their
decision-making. Decisive influence is achieved by credibly threatening to deny
benefits and/or impose costs, while encouraging restraint by convincing the
actor that restraint will result in an acceptable outcome. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">While
deterrence is an inherently defensive strategy, it may not involve defense;
that is, the deterring party may not actively protect its assets or try to
prevent its opponent from taking the action, but rather threatens the use of
violence to convince the opponent not to act in the first place. It may also
employ the calculated use of force which strongly communicates a states’
willingness to sink ships and fire upon aggressor vessels when deemed
necessary. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">A
good example of this is the Falklands invasion. Everyone knew the 1982 invasion
but the public did not know about the 1979 invasion. It was here when the
British intelligence revealed that Argentina had prepared to invade the
Falklands and had begun to deploy a fleet. The plan was thwarted. The question
of how was answered when Prime Minister Callaghan called General Galtierri of
Argentina that he sent a submarine in case Falklands will be invaded and they
were willing to fight. Whether or not the Prime Minister was bluffing or not,
no one knows and the public won’t ever know. But one thing is sure is that that
General Galtierri did not attack the Falklands in 1979. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Three primary elements should also be
considered including the benefits of a course of action, the costs of action
and the consequences of restraint. By effecting deterrence, it should credibly
threaten to dent the adversary the benefits or gains being sought. It also
involves denying benefits through both offensive and defensive activities and
capabilities. When threating to impose costs that are viewed as unacceptable,
it involves convincing the adversary that the costs incurred in will be severe
and highly probable. Lastly, to encourage the adversary restraint by convincing
it that by not undertaking the action being deterred will result in an
acceptable outcome of the adversary.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Capability refers to whether the actor
issuing the deterrent threat is capable of carrying out the threat. The ability
to successfully deter depends to some degree on the power of the deterring
actor. Consequently, in order doe deterrence to work, a state must communicate
its threats. If the state does not know that an action is prohibited, it cannot
be deterred from taking that action. States have to work very hard at
establishing their credibility, especially in situations of extended
deterrence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Hence
as explicitly provided by law that the country needs to develop a defensive
capability against perceived or real external security threats; the approach
toward reinforcing border security focuses on a comprehensive border protection
program anchored on the establishment and enhancement of surveillance,
deterrence and border patrol capabilities of the Philippine Air Force,
Philippine Navy and Philippine Coast Guard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Air and Naval Forces<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">There
is a need to establish a strong link between planning an execution. The
development of a comprehensive institutional framework containing detailed
implementing guidelines to align, harmonize, and synchronize the intent of all
relevant policies. Regional defense spending provides a general indicator of
investments made by various countries into defense. The capability weakness
also translates into limited approach. Since the Philippines has limited
capabilities for the use of force. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
National Military Strategy best captures the AFP’s objective to secure the
sovereignty and integrity of the national territory and protect maritime
interests. From thereon, concepts such as credible deterrence, intelligence
surveillance, and reconnaissance, sea and air patrols, maritime strike, and air
defense should be discussed comprehensively.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
should be anchored on the increased Command and Control and Communication
capabilities, increased air defense capabilities, increased maritime strike
capabilities, and surface warfare capabilities inclusive of new vessels and
system upgrades for selected ships in the current fleet, subsurface warfare
capabilities, amphibious assault, ISR capabilities covering those provided by
air, sea, and land based systems, theatre mobility inclusive of strategic
sealift and airlift, missile defences against air surface and land targets. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
requirements for development of sea and air powers are not limited to the
actual equipment alone. As stong policy is required to enable synergized and
coordinated action. The Philippines must draw the line and determine how far it
can go. The roles of the national defense leadership to capacitate the
country’s Sea and Air forces must be stressed.</span></div>
Chester Cabalzahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13860698970859998919noreply@blogger.com0