China should re-read the Baselines Bill

Unknown to many, I once worked as Foreign Affairs Specialist at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). I was detailed at the department's think-tank, the Center for International Relations and Strategic Studies (CIRSS) or what we all call "sears". Handling the economic diplomacy desk, I was one of those who recommended and accurately predicted the inclusion of China in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the possible re-organization of the regional trade organizations into multilateral economic zones. This is happening right now.

This latest caper by China, issuing a protest over the Senate's watered down version of the Archipelagic Baselines Bill is a comedy, a laughable thing which, probably stemmed from the inability of the Philippine Charge d'Affairs in Beijing to translate the bill to Mandarin. The statement is a knee-jerk reaction from the Chinese, albeit, done grinning sheepishly while saying it. Come on, China. We both know that the bill diluted our claims to the Kalayaan Islands and Scarborough shoal. Under the "regime of islands" concept in the UNCLOS, the version practically abandoned the claims, and yet, you protest. And for what?

Because we did'nt unilaterally dropped the entire claim, as you suggested in talks with the Arroyo administration late last year? Your attaches and political operators went into full high-gear diplomacy with our Congressmen, those very close to Arroyo, to ask our government to abandon the claims in exchange for commercial transaction of the Congressmen's self-appointed companies and a whooping government-to-government loan under the China Exim bank.

Former UN representative Lauro Baja already told the whole world that the Philippines erred in passing that version since it effectively handed over to you the entire Kalayaan archipelago. You can now exploit those territories for themselves, says Baja.

China should re-read the bill and revert back to us with a reasonable answer.

Clinton slaps Arroyo while Arroyo snaps back with Smith

The timing is impeccable. It deserves both our derision and praise.

The Supreme Court released a decision on convicted American rapist Daniel Smith, the very same week new US State department Hillary Clinton does her Asian trip. Shortly after the SC released the decision, temperatures again rose when civil society groups and the media try to revive nationalist passions against US inaction to hand over the rapist.

Is this a case of just "papansin", or in English, PDA meaning Public Display of Anger?

Obviously, the Smith case is a classic propaganda campaign meant to convince Obama and his administration that the Philippines is more relevant, than, say Indonesia or Thailand.

Those obvious snubs which Obama gave Arroyo and this slap by Clinton shows how strained relations between the Arroyo administration and the US government is right now.

This explains why the Arroyo administration is getting cozier with the Chinese than Obama, to the point that the government dangled the Kalayaan and Scarborough shoals as bait to the Americans.

The gambit did'nt work. That's why Arroyo is now dangling Smith before the nose of Obama and Clinton, trying to get their attention and for what? To save her administration? Or probably, to save her skin and that of her husband, who obviously, faces the prospect of arrest due to money laundering?

China triumphs with the loss of Kalayaan

Last night, the Senate passed the modified version of the Baselines bill. This version, our sources say, is the one "approved" by the Chinese government. Essentially, the bill conveniently excluded the seas and oceans between the Kalayaan Islands and Scarborough shoals under our regime of islands, which, effectively means that we don't own those prime properties. This is the official abandonment of our claims to these islands which were discovered by a Filipino and occupied by Filipinos.

It's now up to the President to sign the bill and pass it to the UNCLOS or the United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Sea. The UN will take note of this and put it as our answer to numerous queries on our definite position regarding this contentious issue.

If Arroyo signs this into law, this act alone would effectively demolish decades of positioning we took before regional and world bodies in relation to Kalayaan and Scarborough shoals. It laid waste millions of pesos we spent in legal research and trips abroad when we tried to convince the world that these oil-rich islands are ours.

Now, what would then happen to our "part" in the joint exploration agreement? Surely, China and Vietnam would squirm at giving us our share in the proceeds of this joint exploration since we now claim that these islands are not part of official Philippine territory.

So, do we benefit from this baselines bill? No. Who now rejoices at this one? Of course, China.

As I wrote in previous entries, this government is selling prime Philippine property at break-neck speed, possibly because it's only a few months before they write finis to their evil governance. This bill is the biggest real estate sellout in history. After giving our Zambales mines to China and at least 20% of our agricultural lands for the food security requirements of the Chinese, we are now giving away precious oil resources for a measly sum of US$ 8 billion when we could have asked foreign companies to develop these resources and mine those undersea oil.

We say, we're weak and we're not in the position to negotiate or sustain our claims to these islands. That's not reason enough. This is the golden age of diplomacy. And it's far-fetched that China would go to war with us simply because of Kalayaan. We have the Mutual Defense Treaty with the United States. This is a statute which protects us from future foreign invasions.

What this shows is that China is officially now the biggest shadow behind the Philippine government. China now influences policy-making in the Philippines, which is not at all surprising, given that we do have strong ties with the Bamboo Curtain long before the West arrived in our shores. We just reverted back to our pre-Spanish situation where early Filipinos give tributes to the Chinese emperor.

Now, it seems, that we have China in our back while we gnawl and snarl at Uncle Sam. How things have changed. It just shows you that we don't need a Joma Sison to turn this country into a protectorate of China. We just need an Arroyo, teaming up with an Enrile, a Santiago and a Nograles to make this a reality which Joma and the rest of the guys tried for forty years to do.

Congress Just Sold our Kalayaan

While we worry about the next meal and bow our heads in shame over so many scandals involving government, now comes Congress with another sellout. The Bicameral Conference committee has just approved a version of the Baselines Bill that effectively excluded the Kalayaan Islands and Scarborough isles from Philippine territory.

This version, which Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile termed as the “best” that these legislators can come up so far, is slated to be approved by both Houses and submitted for signature to the President. Former Philippine Representative to the United Nations Lauro Baja was shocked to learn that this 14th Congress has just sold out the claim of the Philippines in a nonchalant fashion. This bill effectively erased decades of debates and studies undertaken by our country’s diplomats just to defend our claims to these oil-rich islands. And what was the reason of these “distinguished” traitors, err, legislators?

” The Chinese and the Vietnamese will go to war against us if we continue our claims, ” says Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile. Enrile must have probably thought that we’re in the 19th century where gunboat diplomacy was the norm rather than the exception in international diplomacy. Or, probably he thinks that all Filipinos are octogenarians, weak and unable to defend their own lands against foreign intrusions. Enrile must have been asleep. For, ever octogenarians among us, who fought those global wars and survived, will fight on for their country, unlike this prodigal son from the North who shake with fear just by the very prospect of hearing a whimper of protest by these wealthy Chinese Communists.

This bogey, it seems, was created just to justify the obvious sellout of these islands. And for what cost, you ask? China reportedly offered US$ 8 billion in loans just for the Philippines to drop its claim in the Kalayaan islands.

Why are we so obsessed with selling our islands, our mountains, our lands, our rivers and streams? Have we no love for our beloved country? Have we forgotten that our heroes and forebears fought with their lives and their blood just to create this Nation of 82 million souls living in 7,100 islands? Maybe, it’s our perverse understanding of the concepts of a borderless world? Or maybe, just maybe, some of us, particularly those who we elected as leaders, are so obsessed and hungry to get hold of that US$ 8 billion bonanza that they don’t think about the disastrous effects of such a sellout to future generations?

We are so unfortunate to have a Senate President that thinks he owes his post to the Chinese and the Vietnamese Communists. We are so unlucky to have a Speaker who wants to sell every parcel of prime property to foreigners by lifting Constitutional provisions. These former bar top-notchers are the country’s foremost real estate agents who think they owe their lives to their patron, under the ignominious name of Gloria Arroyo.

Such a waste of talent, these two men of traitorous natures. It is a shame that we now live in a generation where graduates of AIM, in the likes of Celso delos Angeles Jr. use their talents to scam people out of their lifesavings. It is a shame that brilliant legal minds, such as these two men from the North and the South, conspiring to offer the Philippines as a tribute to their Chinese masters in Beijing. Shame that these so-called “brave men” who fought the dictatorship, are now the ones carving these beautiful country into little fiefdoms and selling those islands to the Chinese, an obvious admission of the frailities of our crooked souls.

” RP is for sale.” We have sold our morals already. We gave up our brothers and sisters to Middle Eastern masters due to poverty. We sold our organs, our bodies, to the highest bidder from Europe and the United States. Now, we are selling the very land, the very soil, we tread and we owe our very lives.

What’s so sad is that we don’t mind giving these islands to foreigners. When we were presented with the prospect of peace with our fellow Muslim kin last year, with the MOA-AD, we screamed and threatened to unleash the dogs of war against our blood brothers. Yet, when we now see the prospect of losing our claims to these islands and also face the prospect of losing yet another, this time, Sabah, silence.

We deserve our slavery.