THE LEGAL FRONT
The efforts of the PBBM administration – in this time of peace – to prepare our country for defensive measures we may need if our circumstances change, are very commendable and should receive the people’s fullest support. The primary duty to help our nation lies with us – the people, not with anybody else despite defense agreements we have in place. In appreciating and acting on this duty, the PBBM administration can neither be wrong nor alarmist; it is only taking steps under our present circumstances to protect our interests.
Despite the apparent peace, many parts of the world are troubled. War has been raging in Ukraine for more than a year now with no end in sight. Tension is building up in the Middle East due to the long-standing Arab objection over the existence of the State of Israel. In our part of the world, the rhetoric between China and Taiwan is slowly becoming shrill and is not helped by the rivalry for world supremacy between China and the US. North Korea is the joker in the pack and cannot be disregarded because it now has atomic weapons that can threaten nations with capacity to retaliate in kind – the US and Japan.
In these situations, we should be glad that our government is actively watching. Our military and defensive capabilities, of course, cannot compare with those that China or North Korea can muster. But we can help ourselves and must be seen by our allies and by potential hostile forces to be willing to give everything to defend our country. This is the lesson that Ukraine and Taiwan are now showing the world, and these are the lessons we should emulate.
Even with limited capabilities on instruments of war, we can and should positively act on everything we can influence if not at all control. The first of these is our people. We should bolster their morale to ensure that they will not be lacking in motivation and nationalism. PBBM’s consistent unity messages help a lot along these lines. Other cabinet members can contribute a lot to bring this message home until unity becomes a strident chorus that no one can miss.
Actions always speak louder than words, but actions plus words (or the message actions convey) would be best. Government is at its best when acting in the interest of the people and showing that it is always there when needed. This is an action that carries a very formidable message – the government’s unity with the people.
Vietnam, for example, when it was fighting a comparative giant (the US), secured its war aims because its people fought, sacrificed, and even died for its defense. This was self-help with the message that Vietnam and its people would not give in. The fall of Saigon concretely drove home this point; it compelled the US to sit up and realize that it had been fighting on misguided principles and its soldiers were dying needlessly in a faraway war.
This example is pregnant with lessons for us in handling the incursions of the Chinese in the West Philippine Sea. China has taken to bullying us because we have always taken vague or evasive action in the past. Perhaps, the time has come for us to consider other responses carrying the clear message that we are not giving up, particularly to these types of provocations.
Aside from responses through direct actions, we can continue to act through diplomatic channels, by actions and messages reflecting our objection to Chinese activities. The Department of Foreign Affairs is in the best position to dig into these possibilities. At the same time, let us consider actions outside of diplomatic channels to convey our objections to the world at large. For example, as has happened very recently, we should proceed against Chinese companies with active participation in carrying out Chinese government actions violative of our sovereignty. We should now stop buying Chinese products or products whose components are made in China. Let us thereafter tell the world that this is what the Filipino people are now doing. We must walk our talk by stopping to rely on China for funds or favors that we used to ask for in the past.
Of course, we will suffer as we do these, but this is the necessary cost of pro-active defensive moves. Despite these costs, we must continue to engage in other means of self-help to show the world we are not remiss in helping ourselves. This is the least we can do before we can ask for help from other nations.
The PBBM administration has started actions along these lines. Let us encourage these courses of action by giving the government our full support. ([email protected])