As ethnic Filipinos in America, our task is at our very hands—get on the phones, send out e-mails, resort to the social media, and write. The pen is mightier than the sword. We must form the bridge of understanding between the peoples of America and the Philippines.
At the top of the criticism are the efforts in the Philippines to eradicate narcotic marketing and distribution, and addiction—one of the three pillars of the platform Mayor Rodrigo Duterte put on the table for the electorate to choose. American officials characterized these as Human Rights violations and American media used adjectives such as “abhorrent.” Let’s look into this. Isn’t this, in fact, a matter of subjective values?
While America is permissive of abortions, Filipinos find it abhorrent! Which is worse? Killing criminals who cause cancer-like pestilence that not only destroys the victim (addict) but every body else who loves and surrounds him/her …his family, his friends, his associates? Or killing the innocent unborn, a human life ripped apart limb-by-limb or any other painful or sedated method of death? Who bears the guilt of human rights violation?
Imagine an America in which not only all of its cities but each of its towns are overwhelmed by drug trade and the destructive addiction of its young, and where even officials and the police participate? This is narco pestilence! Wouldn’t this constitute national crisis of enormous proportions? Apparently, this has been the metastasizing situation in the Philippines, and it is at stage 4.
Let us remind our fellow Americans that President Lincoln, himself, in 1861 suspended the Writ of Habeas Corpus when he determined the public safety to be at high risk. Against the outbursts of Southern sympathizers and orders from the Supreme Court, President Lincoln nevertheless stood fast.
Compare this to the Philippines. Has there been a public outburst? Opposition from Congress? Disapproval from the Supreme Court? Rodrigo Duterte was voted by the Philippine electorate from a city mayor to the highest office in the land by a margin of over six million votes. That IS Democracy! A “Government of the People, by the People, and for the People,”… isn’t this a cornerstone of American political governance??
So then, what’s our peeve?? Hasn’t America simply been but an officious intermeddler into the internal affairs of a sovereign nation? Considering the resounding voice of the Filipinos in voting Rodrigo Duterte to the Presidency, this seems simply to show a shallow understanding by America of the pestilence wrecking the social fabric of the Philippines and the destruction of the future of its young! “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to cast a stone!”
A close observation of how President Duterte connects with the masses will reveal that his heart beats with theirs, that he sincerely wants to alleviate the hardships of their life, their despair, their abject poverty, the desolate squalor that their children can only play in, little education, a great need for healthcare. After decades of seeming indifference by their own government and their society, alas, in President Duterte they see hope, and fervently pray to God for redemption.
Look at what he has accomplished in a short time: Improved relations with the neighbors of the Philippines, better trade and commerce with China, and a staunch alliance with Japan.
It is, of course, with great sorrow to us, Filipino-Americans, that he seems to have a personal grudge against America, and wanting to part ways. It is intensely disconcerting to us that he appears, farther in time, to wholly part with America, military relationship included. With humility, we offer the opinion that such agenda would be terribly inimical to both the Philippines and America.
Reviewing the relationship between the two countries, although it started with a war in 1899-1902, to America’s credit it subsequently managed its colonization from being enemies to becoming the best of friends, resulting in the proclamation of the Commonwealth of the Philippines in 1936, with a promise of independence in 10 years. In the Second World War, soldiers of both countries valiantly fought shoulder-to-shoulder, creating a brotherhood earned in combat and sealed in blood. On July 4, 1946, the ravages of war notwithstanding, America fulfilled its promised to relinquish its sovereignty over the Philippines. A strong alliance formed, and the Filipinos embraced America.
With passing years, however, the memory of America’s Government faded and failed to sustain the fraternal spirit between the two sovereign nations. A succession of American Administrations treated the Philippines as a subservient vassal. Until today, when President Duterte rejected America’s intermeddling as disrespectful and intolerable.
But he remains open to reconciliation. He explained why: The Filipino people do not want a separation from America, and the Filipinos in America are strongly against it! That’s us! Spread the word!
The ball is on the court of the United States. It can do whatever is necessary to save a ship in distress, or lose a faithful ally and geographically strategic country.
Jose Y. Lauchengco, Jr.
Attorney at law
Los Angeles, California