Category: Foreign Affairs

What PH should take note of in Obama’s foreign policy speech

Published by Ellen on June 1, 2014

“Just because we have the best hammer does not mean that every problem is a nail.”

“And I would betray my duty to you and to the country we love if I ever sent you into harm’s way simply because I saw a problem somewhere in the world that needed to be fixed, or because I was worried about critics who think military intervention is the only way for America to avoid looking weak. “

Those statements in President Barack Obama’s Foreign Policy speech at the commencement ceremony of the United States Military Academy last week should tell current Philippine leaders to rethink of their U.S-dependent foreign policy because America will not risk the lives of their soldiers to fight for a war that will put their national interest in jeopardy.

Tension rising as China sinks Vietnamese boat

Published by Ellen on May 27, 2014

Water cannon fight between China and Vietnam over Chinese oil rig in Paracels.

While we continue to be engrossed with Napolist (she has submitted an expanded list naming 120 lawmakers as alleged beneficiaries of her largesse including her contributions to their election campaign), things are heating up in the South China Sea between China and Vietnam that could destabilize Southeast Asia.

News reports yesterday said a Chinese boat sank a Vietnamese fishing vessel 17 nautical miles from the oil rig of China National Offshore Oil Corporation near the China- occupied Paracel islands. The rig is 240 km (150 miles) off Vietnam’s coast and 330 km (206 miles) from the southern coast of China’s Hainan island.

Opposition to EDCA goes to SC today

Published by Ellen on May 25, 2014

Click here for the full text of the EDCA petition

Another petition filed by BAYAN and sectoral congressmen against EDCA:
Final Bayan PETITION EDCA SC

Today, various individuals and groups, appalled by the mockery of the Constitution and complete disregard of the historic Senate vote ending the U.S. bases era on Sept. 16, 1991 by the Aquino government, are filing with the Supreme Court today a petition to declare the recently-signed PH-US Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement as unconstitutional.

Former senators Rene Saguisag and Wigberto Tañada

Leading the petitioners are former Senators Rene Saguisag and Wigberto Tanada, two of the 12 who voted to kick the US Bases out in 1991. Steve Salonga, will be signing the petition for his father, former Senate President Jovito Salonga. (The other nine senators who voted to oust the U.S. bases were Agapito “Butz” Aquino, Joseph Estrada, Teofisto Guingona Jr, Sotero Laurel II, Ernesto Maceda Jr, Orlando Mercado, Aquilino Pimentel Jr, Victor Ziga, and Juan Ponce Enrile.)

Differences in how PH and Vietnam deal with China’s aggressiveness

Published by Ellen on May 16, 2014

Water cannon fight between China and Vietnam in Paracels.

The current tension in the South China Sea triggered by China’s territorial assertiveness underscores the military weakness of the Philippines and the lack of direction of its foreign policy as against Vietnam’s focused moves backed up by a credible defense capacity.

There are three incidents or conflicts going on in South China Sea that have raised the tension to worrisome levels.

One of the incidents involves Vietnam against China over the latter’s setting up of an oil rig in the disputed Paracel islands, 220 kilometers from Vietnam’s shores.

Bolkiah’s draconian decree violates ASEAN Declaration

Published by Ellen on May 8, 2014

Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah announces implementation of draconian Shariah Law.

Two years ago in Phnom Penh, Cambodia , Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and nine other Southeast Asian leaders signed the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration which provides that,“No person shall be subject to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

Last week, the Sultan of the oil-rich Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah, announced the start of a new criminal code based on sharia law that will impose barbaric punishments like amputation and stoning for offenses that includes being gay and pregnant outside of marriage.

A Los Angeles Times news report said “Under the first phase, fines and jail terms were introduced Thursday for offenses that include failure to attend Friday prayers, indecent behavior and pregnancies outside of marriage.

EDCA: a mockery of the Constitution

Published by Ellen on May 6, 2014

From Dennis Garcia's FB wall — From Dennis Garcia’s FB wall

In the Facebook wall of Dennis Carcia, musician, advertising executive, painter and Abante columnist, there’s a picture of Obama signaling something with two fingers.

Dennis captioned it: “EDCA:I can summarize the agreement in two words- NO RENTAL. “

The post elicited a comment from Noy Dy-Liacco: “I can do it in one: FREE!

The banter is a spoof of the TV musical game show “Name the Tune.”

EDCA is Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, a document so detestable it makes a mockery of the Philippine Constitution and ridicules Philippine sovereignty.

Del Rosario engages in disinformation re coverage of MDT

Published by Ellen on May 1, 2014

Del Rosario: desperately clinging to Uncle Sam.

The day after U.S. President Barack Obama left Manila, Foreign Secretary Albert Del Rosario issued the following statement:

“Under the Mutual Defense Treaty, the United States will come to the assistance of the Philippines if our metropolitan territory is attacked or if our Armed Forces are attacked in the Pacific area.

“In 1999, in a diplomatic letter, the United States affirmed that the South China Sea is considered as part of the Pacific area.”

Del Rosario is pathetic. What is abhorrent about this is, he is resorting to disinformation. Either that or his geography is faulty: The Spratlys, the contested islands in the South China Sea, are not in the Pacific.

Obama shatters delusions of many Filipinos

Published by Ellen on April 29, 2014

U.S. President Barack Obama’s candid answers to the two questions from Filipinos reporters whether the United States will come to the defense of the Philippines in case of an armed conflict with China over territorial disputes in the South China Sea disappointed a lot of Filipinos who expected him to say that the American soldiers who will be coming under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement will be side-by-side Filipinos in blocking China’s expansion in South China Sea.

Obama didn’t say that in his joint presscon with President Aquino in Malacañang Monday. Instead he reminded the public that the United States and China have a “constructive relationship.”

“ There is enormous trade; enormous business that is done between the United States and China; a whole range of issues on the international stage in which cooperation between the US and China are balanced,” he said.

He said: “ So our goal is not to counter China.Our goal is not to contain China” but “ to make sure that international rules and norms are respected, and that includes in the area of maritime disputes.”

Two letters

Published by Ellen on April 28, 2014

There are two letters seeking to two powerful persons who will be making their historic meeting today.

One is from the longest-held political prisoner in the country Juanito Itaas, suspect in the killing of Col. James Rowe, to visiting U.S. President Barack Obama.

The other one is from Edith Burgos, mother of Jonas Burgos, who has been missing for seven years, to President Aquino.

Rowe, a member of the elite Green Beret in the Vietnam, was the chief of the Army Division of the Joint RP-US Military Advisory Group (JUSMAG) when he was ambushed and killed on April 21, 1989 in Quezon while he was on his way to his office. His driver, Joaquin Vinuya, survived the ambush.

Is the Philippines ready for China’s retaliation?

Published by Ellen on March 30, 2014

No ifs and buts about it: the Philippines and China are no longer friends.

That’s a decision that the Philippines made when it hauled China to the United Nations Arbitral Tribunal over the latter’s all -South -China -Sea-encompassing 9-dash line map. As former ambassador to the United Nations Lauro Baja said, “When we filed a case against China at the U.N. that was the end of diplomacy.”

The submission of the Memorial on the case today at the U.N. Court’s headquarters at The Hague further reinforced the hostility.

As a sovereign country, the Philippines has every right to choose who to be friends with and who to take on. The Aquino government has chosen to battle with China. It’s a move applauded by allies who are uncomfortable with the enormous strength of modern China but are hesitant to antagonize the world’s second largest economy.