Ukraine and the Philippines at a historical juncture

THE allegation by Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the Philippines has become a ‘recruitment center’ for Filipinos to become mercenaries in Ukraine for a fistful of dollars ($5,000 per month, according to MFA Spokesperson Maria Sakharova) puts into focus the “similarities” of the situation in both countries.

One, both are surrogates of Western Imperialism, the only difference being that the West (read: US Imperialism) has already succeeded in turning Ukraine into an active warzone, the “frontline” in the West’s decades-long campaign to subjugate Russia and divide it into “tiny principalities,” the way China was subjugated and subdivided by the West some two centuries ago.

As for the Philippines, it won’t be long when we end up as the new warzone in this part of Asia as America’s “proxy state” in its planned military aggression against China. This is over the way our responsible officials are actively colluding with Uncle Sam in its war preparations and hiding their servility under the cloak of fighting for our “rightful” territorial claims in the South China Sea.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky’s legitimacy is already under question since refusing to call for an election last year as provided for under Ukraine’s Constitution and his position is further compounded by horrendous territorial and manpower loses in the battlefield— over one million killed since the war started in 2022.

Now, his term has become more precarious over confirmed reports that he and his closest associates are engaged in massive corruption totaling over $100 billion pocketed from the aid given to Ukraine by the US and NATO since the start of the war and which solidified Ukraine’s notoriety as the “most corrupt country” in Eastern Europe.

The scandal has led, expectedly, to the resignation of several of Zelensky’s key officials in their effort to prevent Zelensky being directly pointed to as an active participant in the heist.

Does this development in Ukraine sounds familiar back here, amidst the systemic raid of our national budget thru ghost projects and budget insertions since the start of this administration and the resignations of key officials linked to the scandal?

Since 2023, Ukraine’s bureaucracy has become dependent on US and European subsidy for the payment of salaries and other expenses of government workers. The war against Russia is simply so expensive that only a year after it started, Ukraine has become practically bankrupt and just surviving on billions of “dole outs” from its Western curators.

What about foreign investment? Heck, who would want to invest in a warzone? And under a regime that is also notorious for corruption? Better take your money elsewhere.

As for us, generations have lived and died trapped in foreign debt and the massive theft of our budget—between P1.2 trillion to P1.9 trillion according to varying estimates in the last three years— has added another layer to our debt structure, which is, foreign borrowing to pay our government workers.

The stink of this corruption scandal is such that no level-headed investor is willing to take the risk as confirmed by our own investment indicators.

We may not yet be a warzone the way Ukraine has become but our present similarities can only lead to one conclusion: national disaster.