EDITORIAL : THE DAILY TRIBUNE, THE PHILIPPINES

 

 

Meaningless diplomatese

 

With Noynoy in the presidential seat in Malacañang, we can all say goodbye to our claim of the Spratlys and have China and even other countries walk all over us.

Noynoy does not seem to have any spine at all when it comes to issues of sovereignty, especially when it comes to China, as he always refuses to even protest the many incursions of China into our territory, always saying that he prefers dialog to tension and confrontation.

That’s fine, except that China does what it wants in the disputed islands, even when it says that it will pursue more talks on the disputed islands.

As things stand, China has been setting up military garrisons and outposts in the country’s claimed Spratlys. The photographs show all these, yet these are also being kept hidden by the Noynoy government, even when it certainly knows that the Chinese keep on adding their garrisons in the disputed islands.

Worse, there was already that Chinese incursion into Reed Bank in Palawan, and certainly, this is part of the Philippine archipelago but nary a protest was filed against China by the Philippine government.

There was that meeting between Noynoy and the Chinese defense minister and one of his communications chiefs, Ricky Carandang, claimed that during the meeting, both sides affirmed “the strong and growing relations between the two countries — both on the economic, political and military fronts.”

That is diplomatese which rarely means anything. That won’t be the end of Chinese incursions nor for that matter, will China stop erecting military garrisons, and Noynoy will allow this to go on, because he has no backbone in defending our sovereignty.

The thing is, while Noynoy keeps on saying that he wants dialogs instead of confrontations, and not even lodging a diplomatic protest on these Chinese build-ups, he also knows that nothing will come out of these so-called dialogs, mainly because China knows it can ride roughshod over Noynoy since he allows China to do its thing in the disputed islands.

The Palace mouthpieces said that China and the Philippines have agreed that dialog is the best way to move forward for the peaceful resolution of the disputed islands.

But this was already the stand for over a decade, yet China keeps up with erecting more and more garrisons and outposts.

But Carandang said about the meeting, that “The Chinese government said it was happy that the Philippines had responded, not in a provocative manner, but had handled (it) in a very cool way.”

And Carandang thinks that was a compliment from the Chinese government?

He appears to have forgotten that it was China that started the provocation through its planes flying over and its building of garrisons and outposts in the disputed islands and he says the Chinese are pleased with Noynoy’s reaction which was deemed cool.

Cool? Is that what is cool, to allow China or any other country to just do as they please and then be praised for not protesting or reacting to such incursions?

But perhaps Noynoy knows he can’t do anything because the country just doesn’t have enough military power to keep China at bay.

Still, it is one thing not to have the military power, but another thing altogether when a country does not even protest the Chinese incursions, which is probably why the country under Noynoy is being treated as a doormat.

That the Philippines under Noynoy is not even being given too much importance among Asean leaders already shows just how low they look at the Philippines and its president.

Even during Asean meetings where leaders in the region are present, there is hardly anything of importance that Noynoy addresses and is listened to. Nothing by way of his “achievements” in Asean meetings appeared to have merited column inches in the region’s media.