Update: Domingo Lee was not confirmed by the Commission on Appointments last Aug. 24 which prevents him from assuming his post as ambassador to China before the state visit of President Aquino starting Aug. 30.
To justify his inclusion in the official delegation, the President named Lee presidential adviser for the China visit.
There cannot be a discussion about Philippine-China relations without touching on the complex issue of conflicting claims in the Spratlys.
When the issue of sovereignty over West Philippine Sea came up, a source said, Lee said that would not be his priority because he will concentrate more on “business, business.”
Aquino has asked Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr to facilitate the confirmation of Lee next week and it is expected that would be done on Aug. 24.
Since Lee has direct access to Malacañang, maybe it would be good for Aquino to give him a copy of his latest State of the Nation address highlighting the following part which was applauded heartily by the audience at the Batasan Pambansa last month:
“ Speaking of security, does enhanced security not also enhance our national pride? There was a time when we couldn’t appropriately respond to threats in our own backyard. Now, our message to the world is clear: What is ours is ours; setting foot on Recto Bank is no different from setting foot on Recto Avenue.
“We do not wish to increase tensions with anyone, but we must let the world know that we are ready to protect what is ours. We are also studying the possibility of elevating the case on the West Philippine Sea to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, to make certain that all involved nations approach the dispute with calm and forbearance.”
Prioritizing business over sovereignty issues in dealing with China in the Spratlys conflict was the justification of former House Speaker Jose de Venecia in pushing for the 2005 Joint Marine Seismic Survey which compromised a large part of Philippine territory especially the oil-rich Reed (Recto) Bank.
The decision to bring the West Philippine Sea issue to the United Nations as mentioned by the President in his SONA is part of the process of untangling and reversing the self-inflicted degradation of territorial integrity committed by the Arroyo government.
It must be recalled that the JMSU, which allowed China and later on Vietnam, to explore Philippine territory, in violation of the Constitution, happened because JDV and Gloria and Mike Arroyo were dazzled by the jumbo loan for several projects that China offered. The loan included funding for overpriced projects like North Rail and NBN-ZTE.
China claims ownership of the whole South China Sea. The recent intrusions by China into Reed Bank, where Philippine exercises sovereignty rights because it is within its 200- mile economic exclusive zone, underscore the long-term adverse effect on the integrity of Philippine territory by short-term business gains.
Aquino’s choice of Lee as an ambassador to such an important post as China does not support his forceful statements on West Philippine Sea.
The 77-year old Lee’s biodata showed that his most outstanding experience in foreign affairs is as “ambassador-at-large , Asia Pacific” during the time of President Cory Aquino.
That,actually, is a calling card designation. It is not a line office and the holder of that title has no duties and responsibilities.
A member of Kuomintang Party, Lee was also President Cory’s senior adviser for Taiwan affairs. Beijing has political issues with Taiwan (The People’s Republic of China considers Taiwan its province) but it is actually to their advantage that the Philippines ambassador is member a national party of their province. It is the Philippines that is put in a ridiculous situation.
Malacañang sources said the designation of Lee, who is a childhood friend of the President’s father, Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr., as ambassador to China was pushed by Eldon Cruz, husband of Ballsy Cruz, PNoy’s sister.
Lee has informed the President that he is bringing with him to Beijing Pete Prado, former secretary of Transportation and Communication during the Cory Aquino administration.
A classmate of the President in Ateneo, Prado has been mentioned in news reports as chief-of-staff in the office of Ballsy Cruz.
Click here to see
Domingo Lee biodata
Sana mali ang isipin ko na ito ay isang makapili.
Sa halip na maipaliwanag ng maayos sa mga Tsino ang nais nating maiparating sa kanila tungkol sa ating mga sakop na lupain, baka maging mitsa pa ito ng isang mas malaking gulo at malagay sa mas masalimuot na sitwasyon ang Pilipinas.
Sa aking paniniwala at paninindigan, dapat makarating na sa International Tribunal ang suliranin sa Spratlys upang maipaintindi ng malinaw at maayos sa mga Tsino na ang di kanila ay di nila dapat galawin o angkinin. May katigasan ang ulo ng mga Tsino lalo na kung ang usapin ay may malaking kinalaman at malaki ang pakinabang nila dahil may pera.
“Sana mali ang isipin ko na ito ay isang makapili.”
I hope some of the comments here doesn’t lead to anti-chinese sentiments.
Even if you replaced Lee with a full-blooded Filipino for ambassador to China, I still think his role should be to focus on the positive (he’s a diplomat) and things that the two countries can agree on, that is: Jobs, Economy, Trade, Business.
Prioritizing business doesn’t mean ignoring the Spratlys issue.
We’ll have to first fix the mess Arroyo got us into when she signed this Joint Marine Seismic Survey deal with China. Whether we like it or not, it’s a legal document signed by the previous malacanang occupant.
My preference is to not send any ambassador to china at all as a protest over the spratlys. Because i don’t think sending a diplomat to “lay down the law” is going to go over well with the CHI-COMS. Just ask the Japanese. Or the Americans.
And don’t expect the US to back us up this time around. the “isolationist” strain in foreign policy is en vogue again (even among republicans) with democrats leading the charge to cut defense spending and foreign aid.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/16/AR2010031603322.html
Allies everywhere feeling snubbed by President Obama
By Robert Kagan
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Does Mr. Lee have the agrément from China?
I simply wonder what people in government could be thinking in appointing (or probably proposing)an ambassador to China who is a member of the Guo Min Dang and adviser to the de facto Taiwan mission in the Philippines.
I would not want to take this against a person about whom I know nothing (Mr. Lee). But I couldn’t forgive cretins who actually make these decisions. Much less I could imagine that they are in charge of my tax money.
A few more acts like these and we could forget about “daang matuwid.” There will be no roads to speak of: washed away by the blundering ways of this government.
I agree with johnmarzan,we must be able to explore alternative options and not limit it to win/lose scenarios only. Del Rosario has clarified our position as far as territory is concerned, Lee’s job is to build value, to find win/win solutions to the issues at hand.if we can leverage ourselves as a valuable trade partner and both countries agree to a mutually beneficial long term arrangement, so much the better.
The Chinese inteligence capabilty has probably dug up the ku min tang issue, judging by the lack of reaction on their end – it is not an issue.
Lets allow the admin to do its job, some people are better at this than we are, otherwise lets take over their work?
If Lee will be operating on the “business” paradigm and not on the foreign diplomacy one (which means protecting our interests and sovereignty in a nutshell) – he will negotiate for a purely business transaction.
We know pretty well we do not have the capability to explore and extract whatever fossil fuel deposits are in the Spratly’s, why not be partners in this venture? We have the natural resource (they must accept that first), they can provide the technology and infrastructure, we provide manpower, they train our people in petroleum engineering, drilling technology, etc. We can put up a refinery via PPP arrangement, we sell them the refined product, making it more viable as a business, with them being the priority customer. In the process we set up a realy bad ass training facility to provide skilled personnel for this venture. The key there is to build value, change the focus on the bigger picture and not solely on the Spratly’s issue.
Lee will have to double, no, triple, his efforts as he may have to salvage our public officials’ reputation by proving himself an honorable businessman and not a crook out to loot his own government.
If Lee will be operating on the “business” paradigm and not on the foreign diplomacy one (which means protecting our interests and sovereignty in a nutshell) – he will negotiate for a purely business transaction. -jug
If this is Lee’s only focus, then we don’t need him in China as he will just duplicate the functions of the Trade attache. Que se hoda meron tayong Diplomat sa China if he won’t take care of our diplomatic relations and problems?
Baka naman, Pnoy and the DFA Secretary gave him order not to touch the conflict issue because he is not capable, and that the only reason Lee was made ambassador to China is because of his strong connection with the Aquinos? Apat na K na…include the Kamag-anak Inc. which is most powerful K!
Re #5. “Does Mr. Lee have the agrément from China?” -OFW taxpayer.
The DFA will ask for the agrément after Lee has been confirmed which is expected on Aug. 24.
China will give that. Why would they object to a Philippine ambassador who is practically their national. Imagine being a member of a political party of their province.
It’s not their problem if we make a fool of ourselves.
No doubt China will offer all kinds of loans/businesses as long as the Philippines waives it sovereignty over West Philippine Sea.
We all have seen it in the jumbo loan (for Northrail, NBN-ZTE, Diwalwal project) in exchange for JMSU which allowed them to explore Philippine territory.
Spratlys, especially Reed Bank, is very important to China.
China will never compromise its claim to the whole South China Sea and that includes a huge portion of Philippine territory.
I don’t know how you can see it as good business and good for the country.
What I understand of good business is not only money. It also involves honor and dignity.
“Will Lee defend PH sovereignty over Recto Bank in Beijing?”
That’s one of the items in his job description but as he said, it’s not his priority and besides the briefing is not to touch Phil-china relations.
His priority is all business, maybe ask China to dump more “garbage” and inferior quality goods in the country.
If Lee’s job is all business maybe Noynoy may as well create a new foreign designation which exclusively takes care of business and call it “Business Ambassador” or “ambassador for business only” and his first appointee is Lee.
Then maybe nobody will be questioning the issue about his qualifications as the ambassador at large of Cory and the recommendee of husband and wife Eldon and Ballsy.
Let us look at China also from different perspectives and not just from information being fed by obviously anti Sino sources. Its population of 1.6B os so puts a lot of pressure on the country to maintain GDP growth at least 9% minimum to keep these people fed among others. The China now is far from the picture of the scary big bad commie tyrant existing only to oppress its people and other cointries. It is driven by something more complex now yet at times simple, its driven by big business, political parties, eyc, etc, not much different from us or even the US really (in essence at least) but they will not admit this, because in order to keep peace and order to this much people you have to have some sort of mechanism that works.
What I’m saying is that we look beyond what is being fed to us by limited sources and do not react or form conclusions yet as we have not seen any concrete actions from their end that constitutes invasion yet.
Historically, has China made any overtures to the Philippines that constitutes invasion, colonization? Or have they been just doimg trade since the beginning of civilization? Have they bombed the Philippines, invaded our shores, took over the seats of government, occupied and even colonized us? No, but some current allies did.
What if it is not far fetched that China’s interest will not be met with a beligerent relationships but by trade partnerships based on mutual trust? What if they view us as a vassal of the US still and will sell them out anyntime? What if one way we can assert ourselves is to create VALUE? I’ll just leave it at that for now, just look up the concept yourselves as I’ not not an MBA professor, just a caretaker…
Not all China products are inferior. If they are, then most of the phones we use including our Iphones, Nokias, laptops, pc, wifi, and a host of other gadgets, food, construction materials, are are inferior.
A host of European, not just US companies have set up shop in China, with them the technology ie metallurgy, electronics, IT, quality control, etc, etc. As we blog, these companies are training chinese nationals, investing heavily on behavioral, business ethics, quality, reliability, environmental, good manufacturing practices, HACCP, ISO, FSC, PEFSC, even the sourcing of raw material is redefined focusing on sustainability.
The asian market although is considered to be an emerging market cannot be supplied by a US or European source sustainably or cost effectively in the long run, it must be regional, hence the shift.
Whether the US or anyone else will like it or not, that is the future, and we must open our eyes and minds to fully grasp this otherwise we lose out on value.
I say this because I’m smack in the middle of it. We have succeeded after 20 years or so to change the landscape, shift paradigms, from the traditional corruption laden transactions into transparent, quality conscious, industry standard, and sustainable enterprise beneftting not just the multinational but improving the quality of life in the community concerned. There were issues with government nuances initially as old habits die hard but these were eventually overcome with persistent and uncompromising education. In southeast asia alone, there are areas that used to be littered with landmines left from old wars, where you see men, women, children minus some limbs trying to eke out survival not a living but trying to survive, now are thriving communities, their landmine ridden land converted in lush forests and plantations giving the people a means of livelihood, heathcare, education, shelter, not just hope but new life.
Lets try to focus on more serious matters other than character assasinations, some of us do actual work too.
“China will give that. Why would they object to a Philippine ambassador who is practically their national. Imagine being a member of a political party of their province.”
He’s from Taiwan, an independent democratic state.
“No doubt China will offer all kinds of loans/businesses as long as the Philippines waives it sovereignty over West Philippine Sea.”
I hope the Philippines doesn’t wave it’s sovereignty. I’m hoping for something more like the US Brazil deal where the US finances offshore drilling in brazil
online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203863204574346610120524166.html
john,
The philippines doesn’t have to waive sovereignty, who’s saying we are? Thats the problem with fear mongering, it will lead to war mongering if we’re not careful.
I’d rather the americans help us extract oil in spratlys, but they’re broke and too distracted…
i hope arroyo and jdv explains why they sold the philippines out to china. i’m still waiting for china to point out the fact that the philippine gov’t signed an agreement to let them explore in spratlys under the arroyo admin.
florry,
Welcome to the real world, at least my world…
http://m.youtube.com/#/profile?desktop_uri=%2Fstoraenso&user=storaenso&gl=US&v=Gsg6pg1Ze78
But I have to admit I still can’t understand why Europeans and even Americans can deal properly with China and accorded with equal respect, if they ask for transparency, they get it, so business goes on. Can’t we as a purely Filipino entity, not covered by US or European influence stand as an equal trade partner and demand respect, transparency, mutuality, and value?
If Arroyo and JDV indeed sold out our sovereignty, they have to be made to answer for it big time. If we allow these people to go scott free and even still lurk around the governent, we will never be treated as an equal by China. We must effectively disassociate these kind of people from our true nature, that we stand for honor, integrity, love of country, and rule of law.
Historically, has China made any overtures to the Philippines that constitutes invasion, colonization? Or have they been just doimg trade since the beginning of civilization? – Jug
Look at the nine-dash-line map that China submitted to the UN. A big chunk of Philippine territory including Reed (Recto) bank is included. That’s why the Philippines,with Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario filed a protest.
Invasion these days is not sending a flotila of armed forces. Just look at what they did to Mischief Reef.And if we are gullible or greedy like JDV, the Arroyos and Abalos, they can set up structures wih Chinese flag on Recto Bank.
JM, re # 6. The People’s Republic of China, which insists on a One-China policy with all the countries it has diplomatic ties with including the Philippines, considers Taiwan a province.
The Philippines does not consider Taiwan an independent democratic state. What we have with them is people-to-people relations. That’s why what we have in Taiwan is Manila Economic and Cultural Office. It is under the Office of the President, not the Department of Foreign Affairs.
John, the JMSU agreement was signed in 2005 and completed in 2008. It was supposedly pre-exploratory. You can google “JMSU” and you will get several articles about it.
As Rep. Golez said the area covered by the agreement, about 70 per cent of it was Philippine claimed territory and a large portion of it within the 200 mile EEZ. It is so far away from China.
After the seismic survey, China, Phils and Vietnam (it was belatedly included because it complained), were supposed to go to the next phase which was actual exploration.
But the constitutionality of that agreement was questioned by BAYAN before the Supreme Court.
It is expected that the SC will declare it unconstitutional. That would help the Aquino government undo the selling out of Philippine sovereignty by JDV and Arroyo.
It is my fervent hope that Domingo Lee doesn’t do a JDV. The DFA will have to watch him closely or else the President’s most applauded declation: “What is ours is ours; setting foot on Recto Bank is no different from setting foot on Recto Avenue” would be nothing but a witty sound bite created by (incoming tourism secretary?)Mon Jimenez.
Well, as I said, China is run by big business also, some big business owners occupy positions in the government.
The way I see it, the admin is looking to appeal to this influential group of people to see that sustainable mutually beneficial trade partnership is a more desirable scenario in this region as a lord and vassal one (I hope) and that we don’t have to give up anything except our closed minds.
Nevertheless, there is a need to be cautious, as there are conservative parties inside China that may subscribe to something else. Hopefully, reason will trump beligerence.
Del Rosario and the president have stressed our position with regards to sovereignty, but just saying it won’t achieve anything. There is a need for continous dialogues, relationship building, trust building, but most of all China must appreciate our value as a trade partner and not as a conquered colony.
Ellen,
I am very concerned with this situation really as I stand to lose a lot, professional and otherwise. Its very unfortunate we got into this situation, whatever gave the Chinese the idea that they can claim these areas? This never came out earlier, if it did, I really wasn’t aware of it. Honestly, if you didn’t bring this up remember it was still Gloria as president, I wouldn’t have known really.
If Lee gets the job I hope he’s up to it, this late in the game its like mission impossible, but if I were Aquino, I’d handle this myself.
Jug, China has always claimed the whole South China Sea. (India does not claim sovereignty over the Indian Ocean.)
It is a one of three “core issues” (meaning non-negotiable) to them. The other two are Taiwan and Tibet.
Under the leadership of Del Rosario, the DFA is in the right direction.
Del Rosario respects the decision of the President about Lee after his reservation was overruled.
What the DFA is doing now is making “alalay” to him on political and security issues.
I don’t like to criticize the president, but in this particular issue, I really hope that he takes the bull by the horns. He shouldn’t have made any pronouncements yet about Recto bank in the the last SONA, instead he should’ve met with the Chinese premier and laid his cards on the table, if they still couldn’t find the wisdom in respecting logically established territories, then he can go to the UN, and announce to the world what we can and cannot accept. As it is, parang nagpa saring tayo, which is not generally acceptable in the professional circles even.
It will take some boldness on jis part to stand toe to toe with our strong neighbors but he has to be up front himself.
latest with regards to taiwan and the US…
Obama forfeits respect in Asia by letting Taiwan down – hard
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2011/0817/Obama-forfeits-respect-in-Asia-by-letting-Taiwan-down-hard?cmpid=tweet_count
#32. What the DFA is doing now is making “alalay” to him on political and security issues.
Until when the DFA will make alalay and baby sit Lee?! Sa halip na mag-appoint ng highly qualified, Pnoy chose to appoint a baby and needs alalay so badly! The power of Eldon and Ballsy…!
Kung ganyan, magkakagulo nga kung malihis ng focus ang taga-bantay ni Lee!
Making alalay may not mean to baby sit but to assist, orient, teach the ropes as Lee is not from the foreign affairs pool. Lee may not be as helpless or clueless, he has achieved some degree of success in his life hasn’t he? Maybe even higher than some of us?
I believe thay we are created equal but somewhere along the way some people can do what they do better than everyone else, each of us have our own skills and talents, its just a matter of differing motivations.
Lee may be good at something we are not, lets give the guy a chance as we don’t know much about him really. If the president’s family trusts him that much it must have a basis as even Ballsy is no spring chicken.
Some of us though we appear very tanga sometimes have specializations, some skill or talent that we do better than anyone else, bottomline, we get the job done faster, more efficiently, and with a bigh degree of success compared to others. Perhaps Lee is one such person?
Here’s some info on Domingo Lee including his biodata:
Domingo Lee biodata
i would prefer PNOY to appoint a separate special envoy just to deal with spratlys. Del Rosario would make a good choice.
Hmmm. Thanks for the Lee backgrounder Ellen, I asked around also. I think I understand the strategy for China, it can work. I hope.
Juggernaut, you are giving Aquino too much credit. There is no strategy. Gusto lang ni matandang Domingo Lee mag-ambassador. Maganda pakinggan. Gusto naman ni Eldon at Pete Prado, magnegosyo. That simple.