Hillary Clinton is in the cusp of making history. The former US Secretary of State, New York senator and First Lady is on the way to becoming America’s first woman president. Against billionaire businessman Donald Trump, Hillary, according to the latest pre-election polls, should win in the Nov.9 presidential elections.
Trump is considered the most dangerous man on the planet if elected US president. He has antagonized minorities particularly the millions of Mexicans in America. He vowed to keep them out by building a wall between the US and Mexico. Even more outrageous is his idea that he would make Mexico pay for the construction of the wall. The man is out of touch and needs a reality check. Mexico’s economy is improving and in a matter of years Mexicans will no longer want to enter the US while those already in America will probably return home. In case Trump does not get it yet or refuses to acknowledge it, the world’s richest man, Carlos Slim, is Mexican. Slim, who always figure in the Forbes Magazine list of global billionaires, is worth $50 billion—a fortune made by his group of Mexican business conglomerates.
In their third and final presidential debate in the runup to the November 9 elections, Trump made a slightly better showing. But his comment of not accepting the elections results if beaten by Clinton made the bigger headline. This is an unprecedented and the first time a presidential candidate threatened not to accept official election results if he loses. Defeated Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore accepted defeat and conceded to George Bush in 2000 despite a close race marked by the key vote in the state of Florida.
US airs concern
Assistant US Secretary of State for East Asia Affairs Daniel Russel expressed Washington’s concern over the series of statements made by President Rodrigo Duterte as he cited the two nations’ shared values of freedom, democracy and respect for human rights. In their over an hour meeting at the DFA, Russel also conveyed to Secretary of Foreign Affairs Perfecto Yasay Jr. that President Duterte’s controversial statements are causing international dismay among foreign investors.
Yasay Jr. told Russel the Philippines is not breaking diplomatic relations with America but merely charting an independent foreign policy. Yasay was clarifying Duterte’s statement made during his four-day state visit in Beijing that he was “separating from the US “ in foreign policy and economically.
Russel made clear there are no strings attached to US foreign aid and that Washington merely wants to work with Manila in setting common goals that will redound to both countries’ benefit. The Balikatan war games, he said, was to strengthen the Philippine military capacity by way of training. A refurbished C130 plane was turned over on Monday to the Philippines by outgoing US Ambassador Philip Goldberg.
In a multi-polar world there is no such thing as an independent foreign policy. Every country is interdependent on each other. Even the world’s only superpower US is aware of the Philippines’ strategic value in its rebalancing of military forces in Asia and the Pacific. But the Philippine pivot to China delivered by Duterte’s flirting with Beijing has become a matter of concern to the US. Duterte’s threat to end the Balikatan war exercises under the Visiting Forces Agreement and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement must have sent Russel to Manila on this diplomatic mission.
US Secretary of State John Kerry called from Washington during the two officials’ meeting but details of the call were not revealed by Russel. It was not known whether Russel sought a meeting with the President or not. But it was just as well because a request to be arranged by the US embassy might have been denied, an occasion for Digong to crow about.
The Duterte “separation” statement has also raised deep concern among local captains of industry. Leading Filipino industrialist Manny V. Pangilinan said the separation statement is disquieting to big business and foreign investors. Among the casualties of a break in ties with the US would be the multi-million Business Process Outsourcing industry. BPO call centers employ hundreds of thousands of Filipinos and their dislocation in the event BPOs pull out would surely have serious consequences.
“It’s better to talk less than to say more and appear more common,” said former President Fidel V. Ramos as he cautioned Duterte not to use acerbic words. He said the country must maintain old trusted friends even as it tries to make new ones as Duterte is doing with China. How will Duterte do a balancing act when he visits Japan this week and meets with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe? Japan, which occupied China during World War II, is seen as an enemy of China due to their territorial dispute in the Senkaku/Diaoyo Island in the East China Sea. Japan has also been supplying the Philippines with patrol boats to strengthen its maritime borders in the West Philippine Sea.