CNA Insider
‘They’re taking him for a ride’: Has Philippines gained from Duterte’s China pivot?
In 2016, Philippine President Rodrigo
Duterte warmed to Beijing in exchange for investments. But so far, only a
fraction of the billions of dollars pledged have materialised. The
programme Insight asks if his China policy has come to naught....
The centrepiece of the Duterte administration’s economic policies is
the “Build, Build, Build” (BBB) programme, which consists of some 20,000
infrastructure projects including airports, seaports and highways.
With
China’s funding touted as the best option for upgrading the country’s
infrastructure, the Philippines was set to usher in a “golden age of
infrastructure”.
But less than five per cent of China’s promised
US$24 billion (S$32 billion) in loans and investments have come to
fruition. “They’re taking Duterte for a ride,” says political analyst
and author Richard Heydarian.
The above article in CNA on 19 Dec 20 was written by Desmond Ng and Sumithra Prasanna.
20,000
infrastructure projects, according to the writers, are bad for
Philippines as it would lead to debt traps. The poor tourist guides,
small farmers and street vendors would lose their jobs. They would like
to continue their way of life and what Duterte is going to do, to bring
in China to develop the Philippines with 20,000 projects is not good for
the Philippines people. Duterte must be damn stupid or a traitor to the
Pinoys. How could he want to spend to much money, stupidly let his
country into a debt trap to destroy the Philippines. So the white men
are saying and some silly writers also agreed.
And China is making
it tough in the negotiation, wanting to make sure that the projects are
commerciall viable and would not lead into debt traps? And this is bad
of China. China should blindly just build and let Philippines ended in
debt traps so that the white men can accuse China of wrongdoings. So
clever.
China should not waste its time, resources and money to
rebuild the Philippines. The Pinoys are happy where they are. Duterte
also should not try to be smart to want to develop the Philippines into a
modern state. The Pinoys don't like that.
Also, from the point of
China, Duterte would not be the President for long and the next
president would want to be pro America and enemy of China. How is China
going to pump in millions and billions of dollars into the Philippines
when it knows that any day the Pinoy govt would change and become
hostile to China, cancelling all the projects and not paying?
What
would you do if you were in the shoes of China? Pour in money that is
not welcomed? And the ordinary Pinoys would not appreciate and did not
want them? They are waiting for the American saviours to save the
Philippines and sell them more weapons to be the strongest military
power in Asean and to start a war with China.
Now who are the
silly ones? Duterte? Not to worry, the Americans have been in the
Philippines before, ruling the Philippines for several decades and they
know what the Pinoys want and would make the Pinoys very happy. And when
Duterte is gone, the Pinoys can go dancing with the Americans again and
enjoy lives servicing the American troops as tourist guides and bar
boys and waitresses and street vendors, and no 20,000 projects that they
did not want, that are bad for them.
Chinese
projects would affect the lives of these Pinoys badly. They cannot
continue to be street vendors or tourist guides. Picture from CNA
Maybe
the Americans can take over these projects and build them for free for
the Pinoys and no debt traps. Even if they were to get American loans,
they would definitely be cheaper than Chinese loans. Good luck to the
Pinoys.
35% one shot rise!
Daylight Robbery is what it is.
They do it just because they can!
61% gave them full permission !
Who can speak up for the voiceless in sg?
They keep us in virtual shackles and try to make us believe they do it for our own good.
Is this LHL’s punishment on us for his bad showing at the polls few months ago???
He loves to see us suffer fobt he?
onLEE 35 PCT,WHY NOT 350 PCT?!!!!
WTF! After LOOTING $100 BILLION N GRANTING US $600 ON A SUPPOSED PER CAPITA OF $23K,This govt wants to $crew us more!
They promise no gst increases till later but screw us on medishit lie premium all the same?
This groupie of ar$ehole$ need to be axed!!!
That’s how the SG Govt give free vaccination by increasing the Medishield Life premium etc!
Give u a free drumstick & takes back a whole chicken!
35% increase is really Vampirical.
MediShield Life is a HOAX?
https://www.tremeritus.net/2020/10/28/medishield-life-is-a-hoax/
Useless Medisafe life is going up by whopping 35% which is approximately an increase of $400 for the elderly old. Two elderly old means $800 increase to be paid for by their children if they have no money. That means [2 X ~$1600 = $3200] to be paid for by their children Mandatorily excluding the premium of themselves.
There is no reason whatsoever to keep voting for them, absolutely without any doubts. Why? I cannot understand.
The Evil Regime just gave billions to FT companies for no reason during the pandemic rather than give the people directly. How else are they going to get this back? Expect more rises in taxes and other stuff as well.
PS. And mind you, this is what you voted for. So don't complain. Be grateful that the increase is not more. It is for your own good. It is also for the good of those that would benefit from the 35% premium hike for sure. You have to thank them for being so merciful.