PHILIPPINE national unity, adherence to an independent foreign policy and pursuit of post-COVID19 economic recovery and growth are all advancing during the transition from the Duterte to the BBM government.
But, beginning in March 2023, BBM reversed direction– approved new US military bases, agreed to make the Philippines a ‘proxy’ against China, wasted the first half of his 6-years term on anti-Duterte and anti-China kangaroo legislative hearings, used the media for character assassinations, and cancelled China-funded infrastructure projects.
In a little more than two years, our nation has splintered into the ‘people’ behind Duterte versus the US-BBM clique headed by the BBM-Liza Araneta-Romualdez Triumvirate.
Priority infrastructure and investment projects have been cancelled, our national deficit and the national budget have bloated, crime has risen particularly against Chinese and South Koreans, tourism declined by the millions. In the first half of BBM’s regime, the nation faces doom.
To my mind, there is no light at the end of the tunnel while the US-BBM regime maintain their malignant rule over the country.
BBM cannot save himself while he allows the US to control the reins of government with its ‘divide-and-conquer’ policy over the nation and in the ensuing chaos, advance its proxy war against China, with the Philippines as an adjunct to its Taiwan separatist agenda to provoke China.
BBM is doomed to suffer eternal ignominy and condemnation by the people if he fails to throw off the US yoke at this crucial moment when he has the perfect opportunity.
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BBM now talking of ‘reconciling’ with the Dutertes is empty prattle until he orders an immediate end to the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte in both houses of Congress and the return of her father, President Rodrigo Duterte, from The Hague. These are the first steps to clear the air of the acrimony between BBM and the people.
He then should allow the Senate, entrusted with foreign relations matters by the Constitution, and led by the very credible Imee Marcos and Rodante Marcoleta, to restore our exercise of an independent foreign policy to free the nation from the unspoken US-imposed embargo on our cooperation with China.
The reestablishment of normal government-to-government ties with China, the world’s second largest economy and biggest market, is a big boost to our economy, as our experience has shown under President Duterte.
BBM should pursue the reinstatement of Chinese ‘ODA’ (official development assistance) for our massive railway projects in Luzon and Mindanao that have all stalled due to US pressure.
Normal relations with China can again result to the influx of Chinese tourists that earned us $2 billion money inflow just some three years ago.
More importantly, BBM can remind President Xi Jinping about the $22.8-billion January 2023 investment pledges by China during his state visit to Beijing in January 2023.
BBM must wake up to the fact that the US is a global power on the decline. Its decline was not helped by its ‘Pivot to Asia’ strategy to ‘contain’ the rise of China during the Obama presidency and by President Donal Trump’s ongoing tariff and trade wars against China.
Should BBM finds the ‘balls’ to eject US Imperialism, the Philippines can have peace with China, boost stability in Asia and we would no longer be a ‘pariah state’ in ASEAN.
Now, think of all the benefits we could gain from thereon?