Why our ‘TRA’ with Uncle Sam missing during the SONA

MOST Filipinos were dismayed after President Marcos Jr., failed to report on the significance of his “official visit” to Washington from July 20 to July 22 to “negotiate” a ‘reciprocal trade agreement’ (TRA) with US President Donald Trump, during his State of the Nation Address (SONA) last July 28.

And why not, considering that our Chief Executive left the country when it was already reeling from the devastation being caused by Super Typhoon Crising, their situation being made worse with two more powerful typhoons hitting the country while he and his entourage are still there.

But heck, they give PBBM a pass as they know that on this mission depends the future trajectory of the Philippine economy and that of everyone else.

The result of the visit, of course, is a DISASTER in that we returned to our status as an American neo-colony– our economy tightly enmeshed in the already failing American-led capitalist system and our territories littered anew with American military bases.

Back in 1946, President Manuel Roxas has many reasons to be thankful and grateful to the United States that he readily pressured our own Congress to agree to the presence of US military bases in our territories under the Military Bases Agreement and to our economic subjugation thru the ‘Bell Trade Act’ and its onerous ‘Parity Amendment.’

Roxas, after all, was imprisoned at the Bilibid and facing trial for collaborating with the Japanese but was spared the indignity and humiliation by General Douglas MacArthur as his handpicked president for the Philippines.

In the case of PBBM, what could be behind his gratitude for America when his mandate to govern came from the hands of Filipinos who overwhelmingly voted for him in 2022? Ano kayang “meron” ang mga Kano sa ating Presidente at hindi niya naipaglaban ang ating interes?

The intellectually dishonest “economists” like Joey Salceda and the similarly intellectually dishonest officials like Agriculture Secretary Francis Tiu Laurel and Presidential Special Assistant for Investment Secretary Frederick Go can defend and downplay PBBM’s trade deal with Trump as “good for the economy in the long term” or “good for our food security.” But heck, even the dumbest in any economics class can see through clearly behind their words.

Last April, before Trump’s ‘Tariff War’ against us that raised the rate to 20 percent, our average tariff for US-bound goods is at 17 percent, a situation not befitting our status as a “close friend and ally” of Uncle Sam.

Did Trump actually insulted PBBM when he called him a “tough negotiator” for managing to only reduced the rate by one percentage point, to only 19 percent for a net loss to us of 2 percent and getting zero tariff for US exports here?

Was PBBM got possessed by the spirit of Roxas that he can only lamely justify later that the terms of the deal he struck with Trump was “not our decision?”

Maybe, former senator Nikki Coseteng, a known nationalist, revealed the right context when she declared that PBBM was actually “summoned” by the Americans to simply sign on the dotted line with the whole thing under the cover of an “official visit.”

Given the grave implication to all of us of PBBM’s decision, no wonder not a whiff of his visit to Washington was mentioned during the SONA.