No foreign country should dictate our policy. We are a sovereign nation that has its own way of governing. Our leaders, democratically elected, have the people’s mandate to run our nation’s affairs as they see fit.
These are words we believe in. Of course we are nobody’s vassal. That era has long gone.
We struggle to make sense, then, of cases where we haughtily and summarily reject help from other countries just because we feel they are meddling with how our country is run. Operative word: Feel.
For example, we learned this week from European Union Ambassador that we returned, unsigned, the EU-Philippines Trade-Related Technical Assistance worth 6.1 million euro, or more than P383 million.
It’s a staggering amount that the administration decided to forego, believing it came with strings attached in the form of criticism of the President’s war against illegal drugs.
Ambassador Franz Jessen did not elaborate but said the government’s rejections are in connection with the words “rule of law,” “democracy” and “human rights” linked to the unsigned document.
A bigger amount, 39 million euro—P2.4 billion—that would have been for sustainable energy projects is also about to be rejected.
But while “meddling” is arguable, a rejection of such staggering amounts that would do much to help disaster- and war-stricken Mindanao could always be framed as idealistic even if impractical.
It is pride bordering on arrogance, but it tells us just exactly what values the Palace upholds: These are our affairs, we know what’s best for us, we thank you for your offer, we acknowledge your good intentions but there are higher things we do not wish to negotiate, or compromise.
Unfortunately, the administration waffles in its obstinacy, depending on whom it is dealing with.
With China, our giant neighbor to the West, the tough words reserved for the EU and the rest of the world are whittled down to welcoming pleasantries.
Just recently it was announced we had allowed the Chinese to go to our eastern seaboard, far from the waters it wholly claims as its own, to conduct so-called research into the Philippine Rise.
The Palace spokesman, who in a previous life vigorously spoke out against China’s territorial incursions, now mouths off technicalities and says China is right, the Philippine Rise is not, per se, ours. What it is is part of our continental shelf, according to the United Nations.
Foreign affairs officials do not raise hell when Chinese ships and other structures are spotted on contested territory. They don’t even mention our victory at the Permanent Court of Arbitration—declared China’s nine-dash line had no basis in law —anymore. That decision does not seem worthy of even a mention during our officials’ meetings with their Chinese counterparts.
They appear open to joint explorations and investments in sensitive industries such as telecommunications, conveniently setting aside questions on its implications on data integrity and national security.
We cannot be blamed, then, for wondering if there is a sinister explanation to this inconsistency.
Any position, even the rejection of aid and investments if they came with strings attached, can be justified and even supported. Alas, what we are seeing indicates only absence of reason, and an abundance of whim.