Why can’t the resident beside the Pasig River pick up river stones to knock on his head? – to finally knock himself to sleep
A lady columnist of another major Philippine national newspaper wrote in a recent piece about the rumblings and sleepless nights of Philippine ambassador to Washington Jose “Babe” Romualdez.
Speaking before a gathered group of Consular Corps of the country, the ambassador poured his heart out, “There are rumblings going around now. As you know, we have a lot of exports to China, but all those exports can be at peril because occasionally, we hear negative things.
We’re hoping that our neighbor in the north will see the value of continuing our economic activity while trying to peacefully resolve the issues surrounding our territorial waters. We all know that there are challenging times that we face, on many fronts, as I said.”
Romualdez was referring to the recent resurgence of the “transparency initiative” pioneered and brainchild of ex-US Air Force colonel, Raymond Powell, whom I wrote about in my recent column as the star of the South China Sea of the Philippines against China.
At the start of 2024, there was a lull in the “skirmishes,” as Romualdez puts it, between the Chinese Coast Guard and the Philippine Coast Guard and Navy assets, but in March, this has surged apparently after the US convinced the Government of the Philippines to resume it.
The problem with this newly dubbed “Transparency strategy 2.0” is China’s patience running out and the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs had reported to the palace beside the Pasig River that they felt the heat in the last Wang Yi-Enrique Manalo phone talks and the 8th Bilateral Consultation Mechanism meet.
The last time this happened during the late Noynoy Aquino’s time, the Philippine banana industry lost P 1-billion just for starters.
So, Ambassador Babe Romualdez is sleepless because the fellow beside the Pasig River has been calling him at 2 a.m. and other wee hours of the morning, fretting about the dire consequences if the heat becomes incendiary and all hell breaks loose on the $ 80-billion trade between the two countries.
The Philippines exports billions to China and imports billions more than the country cannot do without, due to China’s mastery of the supply and production chain that offer cheap goods at best quality.
But why did they get into this mess anyway, the previous president, Rodrigo R. Duterte, never complained of sleepless nights.
In fact, he left the legacy of that booming trade with China, a long laundry list of multi-billion infrastructure project done and to be done ranging from the Chico River Irrigation Pump Dam to the 600-million liter per day Kaliwa Dam for Metro Manila water supply, and on to dozens of bridges and rail projects in Luzon and Mindanao to facilitate growth and development.
The only sleepless guys during Duterte’s term were those Americans in Washington anxious and wondering as they go to bed if their US military bases in the Philippines, which they desperately need for what the great late Australian journalist, John Pilger, immortalized in the documentary “The Coming War on China,” will still be around when they wake up.
The resident beside the Pasig River was heir to this Duterte legacy but in February of 2023 allowed expansion of the US bases and his sleepless nights began.
The resident beside the Pasig River admits he has another cause for sleepless night – inflation.
Three in every four Filipinos in a December 2023 OCTA survey said they are dissatisfied with the government’s efforts to control the rising cost of basic commodities.
A record high 75 percent of respondents saying they were dissatisfied with the government’s performance in managing inflation.
Only six percent were satisfied, while 19 percent were undecided. Rice inflation contributes a major part of it.
In June 2023, seeing the rice crisis in the Philippines and the need to boost production in the country, China donated 20,000 MT or 400,000 bags of urea fertilizer to the resident beside the Pasig River.
There’s more where that came from.
But now, the resident beside the Pasig River is saying the Philippines is a frontline state against the northern neighbor.
Why can’t the resident beside the Pasig River pick up river stones to knock on his head? – to finally knock himself to sleep.