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[av_heading heading=’A word of caution’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”][/av_heading]
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WHAT can be more ironic than this? A day after President Duterte announced that the Philippines would be severing military and economic ties with the United States, representatives from our country and the US honored veterans at a commemoration of the 72nd anniversary of the Leyte Gulf landing.
Col. Kevin Wolfla, Army Attaché at the US Embassy in Manila, stated that the ceremony commemorated the shared US and Philippine sacrifices of World War II, “which serve as an example of our strong relationship as the US and the Philippines stand shoulder to shoulder to face the future.”
On Oct. 20, 1944, the Allies, under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, conducted an amphibious assault on Leyte beaches near Tacloban, Dulag and Palo. That afternoon, MacArthur famously waded through the surf and announced his return to the Philippines, as well as his intentions for liberating the islands, stating, “We have come dedicated and committed to the task of destroying every vestige of enemy control over your daily lives, and of restoring upon a foundation of indestructible strength, the liberties of your people.” This began the Battle of Leyte, opening the Philippines Campaign, in which Allied forces and Filipino guerrillas defeated the Japanese occupying armies in the Philippines.
It would do well for all of us to remember this as the Duterte administration charts what it calls an “independent foreign policy” – one that shuns long-time ally US and embraces China that has encroached on our West Philippine Sea territory.
The President must tread with caution as he leads the nation to a so-called “independent foreign policy” to ensure that new relations with China does not involve the surrender of our claim to the West Philippine Sea or our being bound to a new set of impositions and unequal agreements with China. By all means, let us be friends. But we should not be naïve. This is not what Filipinos signed up for when they cast their votes last May 2016, if we go by the huge disparity between the trust rating that the US garnered vis-à-vis China, where Filipinos themselves said they trust the US most and China least.
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