17 JUL

Filipinos still can’t get over being dependent on the United States for national defense

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) Secretary General Renato Reyes Jr says it like it’s a bad thing — that the United States possibly intends to renew its use of key military bases in the Philippines in its bid to “rebalance” troop deployment towards the region. This follows a recently-concluded meeting between Philippine President Benigno “BS” Aquino III and new Commander of US Pacific Command Admiral Samuel Locklear III on Monday, 16th of July.

Reyes seems to have all the facts…

“The US plans to bring 60 percent of their warships to the region in the next ten years. The US also wants to make full use of their former bases in Subic and Clark. The US also plans on maintaining a rotational force in the Philippines, permanently based and in direct violation of the PH Constitution,” Reyes said.

But in pointing out the obvious…

“Make no mistake, the US is only after its own interests. US and PH interests are not one and the same.”

…Reyes demonstrates an astounding lack of adult insight. As if there were any other real reason that governments do things, Mr “Secretary General”. Indeed, Reyes is merely being consistent with that all-too-familiar tagline of the broader community of Commie-infested “cause-oriented groups” that Bayan is a part of. In the mind of these “Leftists”, any government making deals with the US will always necessarily be sellouts to “imperialist” agendas…

…in light of the current dynamics now shaping the region, the leftist rhetoric is built around three basic postulates:

(1) Philippines is being used as a “pawn” of an American plan of “containment and encirclement of China”.

(2) US appetite for war is fuelled by America’s armaments industry which is seen to be a significant source of employment in its depressed economy.

(3) Philippine government “ties” with America are “exclusivist”, have a “superior-subordinate bondage” nature, and “deprive” Filipinos of a “sovereign right to self-determination”.

As such, any move by any ruling administration in the Philippines to affirm ties with the United States will always be seen to be an affront to the commie “revolution”. And as such, there will always be convenient excuses and occasions to throw paint bombs at American embassies and burn American flags.

The United States will, of course, look after its own interests first and foremost. The Philippines, for its part, is expected to do the same when negotiating with the United States. Both parties looking after their own interests does not necessarily preclude said parties settling into a mutually-beneficial agreement with each other. It’s called entering into a win-win relationship. Reyes seems to be telling us that he expects unconditional altruism in any party the Philippines gets in bed with. Well, Mr Reyes, welcome to the real world. It is a lot different from the mountain encampments you and your comrades inhabit.

The Philippines has long demonstrated a cockiness that far exceeds its ability to stand on its own two feet both economically and militarily. Recall in the early 1990s how twelve senators duly elected by the popular vote (and as such presumably representing the Filipino people’s “will”) voted to boot the American Military out of Philippine shores…

Thanks to the 12 bozos who voted against US military bases in the Philippines in 1991 — Senate President Jovito Salonga, Sens. Wigberto Tanada, Teofisto Guingona, Rene Saguisag, Victor Ziga, Sotero Laurel, Ernesto Maceda, Agapito Aquino, Juan Ponce Enrile, Joseph Estrada, Orlando Mercado, and Aquilino Pimentel — Filipinos have, right in their faces today, a sad lesson twenty years in the making in what it is like to languish outside the American sphere of what is globally relevant.

…and how the Philippine economy (as much as other economies around the world) remains imprisoned by a constant flood of “affordable” Chinese products that provide that familiar illusion of affluence many consumers have come to be comfy with.

The irony that escapes most of those who now seek to demonise the Awakening Giant in our midst is that all of us created the monster that is today’s China. It is a story not too different from the one where America and the insatiable appetite for stylish personal transport that it exported to the rest of the world created the global nightmare called Arab politics. This is our version of the story in the Far East. China is the Creature from the Black Lagoon that was roused by our perverted notion of what it means to be a “prosperous” society — larger and larger numbers of us being able to “afford” more and more nice but disposable things.

If our idea of “prosperity” is to keep consuming and disposing and keeping that orgy of waste “affordable” by “outsourcing” our supply to countries like China who are able to churn out mountains of products “cheaply,” then we are headed for trouble.

Then consider how, today, the Philippines finds itself in the untenable position of having to stand up to China alone in its bid to defend its territorial claims on the Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal. Even in a blatant show of sneaky military presence in disputed waters by China, the Philippines has had to use kids’ gloves in dealing with the belligerent global power. Beyond that, the scariest show of force Filipinos could come up with is a fantasy map depicting China as a province of the Philippines and the hollowheads who cheer on the “artists” who come up with these images and the celebrities who promote them.