Duterte's ASEAN summit speech official declared us a Chinese vassal

Think---do we need to shame another country just to prove that we are a "sovereign state" and "not a vassal"? Many tried to provide some sense with what our president said a day before the ASEAN summit and during the summit, when Duterte tried to get an official apology from United States president Barack Obama over the Bud Dajo massacre in Jolo during the American anti-insurgency campaigns in the early 1900s---an incident that led to the deaths of 600,000 Tausugs. Duterte also lashed at the UN chief, wanting him to account for other human rights violations and deaths occuring in other areas of the world.

Many admired the president for "standing up" before a long-time ally and making a "statement" that we are no longer a "vassal of the United States"--not a colony any longer.

Question--do we need such embarrasing antics just to prove that we are an independent state? For all we know, every member of the ASEAN there already know that, then,why put to task another nation, and a long time ally at that, just to show the world that we are now "strong" and "independent".

Besides, that ASEAN summit is a wrong venue for any country to put to task another nation for something which happened several generations ago.

Let me refresh the memory of our dear president---we were the ones who created the ASEAN purposely to provide a venue for Southeast asian nations to talk, discuss issues between and among nations in this part of the world, and foster peace. The ASEAN is definitely not the proper venue for such talks.

If we want to put the US to task for that massacre, and it is made official by our president, then, we have the International Court of Justice or ICJ as a venue. Or, Duterte may ask his counterparts and create a bilateral team to discuss how America maybe accounted for that historical incident.

(To correct the historical belief, yes, the Bud Dajo massacre did happen and it did precipitated a never ending struggle of the Moros against the Americans but it stopped after 1920s. The current war happening in Jolo was not directly linked with Bud Dajo massacre but a consequence of a Marcosian action during Martial law when the former president allowed Zamboanga to become the barter trade hub in that part of Southeast Asia.

The reason why the local economy of Jolo fell  and impoverished most Tausugs was when former president Marcos gave economic concessions to his close political allies, the Lobregats, who controlled the barter trade in the area. )

The thing is--Duterte's timing is rather suspect because after shaming both the US and the UN for human rights violations, our dear president then praised China for giving us, Filipinos, so much assistance and so many things which he never revealed anyway.

Is Duterte happy that Chinese ships are now at Scarborough shoal fortifying their illegal structures there? Is Duterte extremely thankful to China for sending their coast guards to shoo our fishermen away from an area which is definitely part of our territory, as certified by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea or UNCLOS?

While we clap and shout ourselves hoarse, praising Duterte for "standing up" against America, we then hear our dear president praising China whose provocative acts and impetuousness have caused us shame as a state and as a nation before the international community for so many years!

Duterte's choice is clear---our president chooses to become a vassal of China rather than get some help from the United States.

Dear God.