Before the current crisis in the South China Sea, the Duterte govt has worked out a cordial relationship with China. The shipwreck Philippines antique warship stuck on the Chinese islands for 20 years was still allowed to be there with courtesy of China, and the soldiers were allowed to guard the shipwreck to protect it from being stolen in the middle of the South China Sea. And China allowed the Pinoys to provide support and supplies of ration to the Pinoy soldiers guarding the wreck.
China was working with the Philippines in several infrastructure projects that would benefit the Philippines' economy. The Pinoy fishermen were permitted to fish in the seas around the Chinese islands without interference from the Chinese Coast Guards.
All these were gone within months of Marcos' Presidency. The Pinoys started to provoke China with many unfriendly moves, sending material to want to strengthen the structure of the shipwreck to keep if from rotting and sinking, playing cat and mouse games with the Chinese Coast Guards, ramming Chinese fishing boats, even ramming Chinese Coast Guard ships and making inflammatory statements to claim the Chinese islands as Pinoy islands....all because the trouble making Americans were egging them on.
For behaving like Mickey Mouse and taunting China, what did the Philippines gain out of it?
The first significant benefit for the Philippines are 5 more American military bases to add on to the 4 existing bases, compromising on the Philippines as an independent nation state. The Philippines fought so hard to get rid of the American bases and soldiers, to regain control of their lands, evicting the Americans out of Subic Naval Base and Clark Air Base only to invite the Americans to set up more military bases, as good as turning the Philippines back into an American colony.
With so many American bases and soldiers on Philippines soil, the Americans are now is a stronger position to meddle with the domestic politics of the Philippines. The Americans can now dictate who should be the political leaders of the Philippines and Pinoy leaders are now living in fear of being assassinated by the Americans.
What on earth would the Philippines volunteer to turn their country into a colony of the Americans and now effectively under the control of the Americans, to be used as a pawn in America's war against China?
For being hostile and provocative against China, China Philippines relations has hit rock bottom and all the infrastructure projects negotiated by Duterte are now in cold store, dumped for good. In addition, trade between the two countries fizzles out. Pinoy bananas, durians and agricultural produces can no longer be exported to China. Chinese tourists stop visiting the Philippines, causing a huge drop in revenue. Many Pinoy businesses are drying up.
And tension rises in the South China Sea, Pinoy fishermen unable to fish normally, affecting their livelihood, and made to run around like Mickey Mouse, playing cat and mouse game with China's Coast Guards, all for nothing.
Politically, the Philippines is now viewed as a trouble maker in Asean, and a joker in the international arena for wanting to become another Ukraine, and Marcos becoming another clown like Zelensky. From being a peaceful country, with its people going about their lives trying to make a living, from a country gaining foreign investments and building infrastructure to make the Philippines more competitive in trade and economic development, everything is now gone. This is berserk!
Why would the Philippines want to put itself in such a pathetic situation with nothing to gain but all to lose? However, the Pinoys are not protesting and even supporting what Marcos is doing. Support for Marcos is growing. So, what Marcos has been doing must be good for the Philippines and the Pinoys. Everything happening to the Philippines must be a big gain for the Philippines and the Pinoys.
Oh, before I forget, the Americans would be providing a lot of jobs for the Pinoys. More bars and night clubs would be set up with good jobs for the Pinoys. The American soldiers would be throwing their American dollars to the Pinoys. Night life would be exciting in the streets around the American bases. The Americans would provide a lot of fun and entertainment for the Pinoys and Pinays.
Who says being Mickey Mouse has nothing to gain?
2 comments:
Duterte was of course threatened. He even disclosed that if he continued with his close rapport with China, he would not survive the CIA. Why the CIA in particular? Well, as a politician, he knows what the CIA does best and stands for, just like ordinary folks like us. The CIA is the de facto assassination arm of the USA.
No, the USA Government will not conduct assassinations officially itself in those early days, like it is doing today. Then it was said to soil their hands officially, bad for their reputation, and so they set up and used the CIA instead, discreetly and insidiously doing their dirty work. Russia had their KGB, but with demonization and propaganda, the KGB grew to have a bad name associated with assassinations unlike the angelic CIA. Was the CIA involved in the John F. Kennedy's assassination as many suspected? Well, the trail has ended in a prison cell, the perpetrators are free and some probably already dead and buried.
Duterte's experience with the USA tells us how much control the USA still has over the Philippines. The USA Military Base in the Philippines provided all the leverage that the USA had, even though the Philippines had its own military set up. And that applies to all countries hosting USA Military bases. Coupled with a corrupt Military since the days of Marcos Sr, Duterte had to toe the line, having little clout inside the Philippine military establishment.
Today, Mickey Marcos Jr is in a worsening lame position. With his eyes on the ill-gotten wealth from his corrupt father now in the hands of the USA Government, he is just following orders, hoping to lay his hands on those loots. Little does he realize that those loots are now the USA's means to control his every action, just like a puppet.
Pinoy will gain some "promise" of americunt investment + some gi sperm to produce chapzhen childrens. As for marcos, he will get some money back & more good life after retirement.
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