IN A LITTLE more than eight months there will be long queues to the Commission on Elections. Candidates for positions from town councilor to President of the Philippines will be filing certificates of candidacy for the May 2022 national elections.
Already, there is a frontrunner in the presidential race. Davao City mayor, presidential daughter, and officially designated first lady of the Philippines Sara Duterte, leads the survey among a bevy of others that are perceived to be in the running for the topmost political post.
Sen. Manny Pacquiao appears to be the most energetic of all challengers, having been seen all over town making his presence felt despite the pandemic. His not so opaque intentions are getting disclosed to the local barons and their loyal followers.
There are rumors that Vice President Leni Robredo is training her sights on the governorship of Camarines Sur. Yet she remains the leading light in the decimated political opposition, the highest-ranking public official who is expected to present an alternative program of government vis-à-vis the status quo.
Let us put this race in the context of the greatest challenge that will confront the next president that our voters will choose to lead this country – China.
Two weeks ago, China’s foreign minister paid an official visit to President Rodrigo Duterte.
The official announcement was that of a bilateral meeting between Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his local counterpart Teodoro Locsin, Jr. whereby the two governments signed an agreement on economic and technical cooperation worth P3.7 billion – said to be the latest in a succession of grants from China since 2016 when the Philippine government started getting friendly again with its superpower neighbor.
What was not announced is whether the parties had occasion to discuss China’s recent legislation in effect allows its warships to open fire on fishermen plying fishing grounds in the West Philippine Sea.
China’s new coastguard law takes effect this week. It authorizes its coastguard to remove foreign ships by force when they “illegally enter” the country’s waters, which China continues to claim include all those embraced within the so-called nine-dash line.
China’s official line is that the law is needed to clarify the country’s maritime policy and its coastguard’s roles and powers. But there is almost total agreement among neighboring states including Japan that this law has escalated tensions in the region in an unprecedented manner. Shorn of diplomatese, this is an open threat of war.
To recall, almost a year ago, our President sent a notice terminating the country’s Visiting Forces Agreement with the USA after it became known that the United States had cancelled Sen. Ronald Dela Rosa’s visa.
Countervailing forces within government have apparently prevailed because the President was constrained to suspend the termination of the VFA, even earning praises from Sen. Dela Rosa himself for such indefinite suspension.
Government has pinned the country’s maritime fate almost entirely on the enactment of a code of conduct in the region. The President has described the relations between China and the ASEAN as “excellent,” except that “there’s friction between Western nations and China.”
This law passed by China, however, douses cold water on any flickering hopes of a non-confrontational solution unless the Philippines relinquishes its claims over the waters within its exclusive economic zone facing China. The code of conduct was evidently not a serious option.
United Nations General Assembly Resolution No. 2625 requires States to settle disputes with other States by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security and justice are not endangered.
The Philippine Constitution renounces war as an instrument of national policy. Chinese domestic law, on the other hand, now authorizes aggression in cases of threat over areas where its hegemony is at most disputed.
It is clear which internal policy conforms with international directions on peace and security. The next President will have to be truly equipped and willing to do all that is necessary to avert disaster while preserving the territory that he or she is required to protect under the Constitution./PN
