Category: Foreign Affairs

When silence means consent

Published by Ellen on March 24, 2017

March 22 presscon of China's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying. — March 22 presscon of China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying.

China has denied that they are building an environmental monitoring station in Scarborough Shoal which they call “Huangyan Dao” as reported by Reuters last week based on a news report in the Chinese language newspaper Hainan Daily.

The reply of China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying to the question about the Department of Foreign Affairs’ inquiry on the reported monitoring station in Scarborough Shoal , also known as Panatag Shoal and Bajo de Masinloc, was categorical:” There is no such a thing.”

She said, “We have checked with relevant authorities that the recent reports about building an environmental monitoring station on Huangyan Dao are false.”

Alejano to Duterte: ‘May I borrow your jetski?’

Published by Ellen on March 21, 2017

Pres. Duterte takes a swipe at critics before Filipino community in Myanmar, March 19, 2017. Malacanang photo by Marcelino Pascua.

Not surprisingly, President Duterte resorted to incoherent rant when asked about the plan of Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano to file a supplemental impeachment complaint to include developments in Scarborough Shoal and Benham Rise.
This happened in a press conference in Myanmar Monday where Duterte was on a state visit.

Duterte said, “Well for what? If he (Alejano) wants to fight with China, he can lead. I would be glad to send him as the first batch of delegation of Filipinos who want to take the Spratly Islands and all of those they occupied now. Sige. Siya ang mauna.(Go ahead. He should go first). It would be a slaughter for the Filipinos to do that.
‘Yung kanyang tapang-tapangan, huwag munang. (His acting brave, don’t) Do not compare me with you. You are all cowards. Alam ninyo nakita ‘yung kagitingan ninyo noong nag-mutiny kaya mga walang hiya kayo. (You know we have seen your “bravery” when you staged a mutiny. You are shameless.)”

He continued fulminating more about the protest actions that Alejano together with Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and the Magdalo group did against Gloria Arroyo when they were young military officers in July 2003 (Oakwood mutiny) and in November 2007 (Manila Pen siege) which were irrelevant to the question about China’s activities in Scarborough Shoal and Benham Rise.

Carpio tells Duterte what to do re China in Scarborough Shoal

Published by Ellen on March 19, 2017

Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio reminded Sunday President Duterte of his “constitutional duty” to the Filipino people to defend the country’s national territory and suggested to him four ways he can do it as regards the reported China’s plans to set up an environmental monitoring station in Scarborough Shoal.

This is after the President said he cannot stop China from what it is doing unless he declared war against the behemoth neighbour which he is not willing to do.

In a press conference at the Davao City International Airport, Duterte was asked about a news report that China is planning to build a radar station in Scarborough shoal, 124 nautical miles from Zambales in Luzon.

Justice Carpio’s Benham Rise 101

Published by Ellen on March 15, 2017

Where is Benham Rise ? From the video of Oceana Philippines

The notes of Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio on Benham Rise is very useful as the 13-million-hectare undersea region east of Luzon is in the news with the disclosure last week by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana that Chinese survey ships have been spotted in the area last year.

Filipinos are familiar with Scarborough o Panatag Shoal , Pag-asa island and other features in the disputed Spratlys in the South China Sea but, Benham Rise?

It seems that even President Duterte is not familiar with Benham Rise based on his answer to GMATV’s Joseph Morong’s question last Monday night.

Out of DFA, Yasay has difficulty renewing passport

Published by Ellen on March 12, 2017

Life is like a wheel. One moment you are up and the next moment you can be down.

That is happening to Perfecto Yasay Jr, foreign secretary since the start of the Duterte administration last July 2016 until last Wednesday, March 8.

Former Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay, Jr and President Duterte when details of his citizenship were not yet exposed.

When Yasay was foreign secretary, his office was swamped with requests from relatives, friends and friends of relatives and friends to facilitate their application and renewal of passports.

And Yasay’s office always was willing to help, even if it was just a band-aid solution to the serious problem in its passport processing.

Will it finally be Cayetano to DFA despite Arroyo’s objection?

Published by Ellen on March 5, 2017

Pres. Duterte and Sen Alan Peter Cayetano in the Presidential plane returning from a state visit to Malaysia on Nov. 11, 2016. With them is Special Assistant to the President Christopher Lawrence Go. Malacañang photo by Robinson Niñal Jr.

It looks like Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano will finally be the foreign secretary come May when the one-year election ban for those who ran in the last elections would expire.

Although the President reiterated last December his offer to his running mate made last May after the elections, no one was sure given the unpredictability of the hazy political alignments in the Senate where the brashness of Cayetano might be needed.

There’s also the possibility of Vice President Leni Robredo getting disqualified together with the rest who ran under the Liberal Party if the Supreme Court decides that the Commission on Election erred in extending the deadline for the filing of the Statement of (Elections) Contributions and Expenditures.

Do you want to learn Mandarin in Taiwan?

Published by Ellen on February 2, 2017

The best way to learn a foreign language is to be in place where it is spoken. The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in the Philippines has announced various scholarship programs open to qualified Filipino students.

One of them is Huayu (Mandarin) Enrichment Scholarship which allows applicants to choose to pursue either 2 months or 3 months intensive Mandarin courses subject. A monthly stipend of 25, 000 NTD will be provided to cover all the expenses. Application is from February 1-March 31, 2017.

For more of this scholarship, please visit: https://taiwanscholarship.moe.gov.tw

Yasay totally unaware of passport applicants’ woes until last Thursday

Published by Ellen on January 8, 2017

It was only Thursday last week that Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay, Jr. knew the agony that Filipinos who are applying for a new or renewing their passport had to go through.

In a post in my Facebook last Friday, Yasay said: “I am hearing for the first time that there are incessant breakdown or interruptions in internet connections which I will address today.”

Thank you, Mr. Secretary.

How the problem that has caused so much stress to many Filipinos finally got to the Secretary underscores the usefulness of Facebook.

Gov’t on ASEAN hosting bid: ‘We rule, our rule’

Published by Ellen on January 5, 2017

Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno brushes aside concerns on the shortcutting of the bidding process for the handling of PH hosting of the 2007 ASEAN meetings.

By Charmaine Deogracias and Ellen Tordesillas
VERA FIles

The Department of Budget and Management denied violating procurement rules when it bidded out the P2.8 billion contract for the hosting of the 2017 ASEAN conferences in the country, saying it has full discretion in determining the rules for such processes.

The DMB-Procurement Service came under fire for classifying the contract as a procurement of goods and not consulting services, and for awarding the contract to the sole bidder, StageCraft International. The DBM insisted StageCraft has already acquired expertise for such projects, having handled the Philippine hosting of the Asia Pacific Economic Conference in 2015, and therefore will supply “goods and services.”

“The procurement was designed to be most advantageous to the government,” the Department of Budget and Management-Procurement Service (DBM-PS) said in a statement on Wednesday, in reaction to allegations the transaction would be “manifestly and grossly disadvantageous to government.”

Diokno: Ignore alleged irregularity in 2017 ASEAN hosting bidding

Published by Ellen on January 4, 2017

Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said he ordered his office to award the P2.8 billion contract for the 2017 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) conferences in the Philippines to the lone bidder, despite complaints about alleged irregularities in the bidding.

In a press briefing in Malacanang Tuesday, Diokno insisted that the government complied with the bidding process and said he agreed with Director General Marciano Paynor, Jr. of the ASEAN National Organizing Committee (NOC) that government should talk to just one bidder in the biggest contract in the history of events management in the Philippines.

“(Paynor said) we should just have one bidder, I want to talk to one person. So that’s what happened there,” Diokno said.

He added, “EON is just a small company…. Ignore that EON complaint.”