Padilla: Still about the Rise

OFTEN I would ask ‘what should I write about?’ In recent weeks, my conversations with my different groups of friends ranged from pressing social issues to someone’s wacko ex then segueing to salacious trysts with a guy whose playbook has become predictable and boring. But when we ask ourselves what we would want to see print or to read about we beckon what Le Guin has called as the ‘creative children who survived’-- adults. In the midst of all these hodge-podge of ideas and colorful experiences, we want to leave behind impression that we attempted to become better persons, the children our parents would be proud of, the aunts or uncles the young ones would look up to.

Then we read about Harry Roque and Benham Rise and our divergences find the same effigy we would like to burn, a topic that we would like to rant about until the wells run dry or bury our heads so deep in our hand still it metamorphoses into an appendage of ignominy. While the rest of the universe swoon with leaders like Justin Trudeau, Roque is at the opposite of that pole and let me count the ways.

Before he became the presidential spokesperson, Roque championed the rights of the fisher folk in the West Philippine Sea. He called out China’s unlawful use of force to advance its claims in the disputed marine territory. But now as Spox, he stated that: There will come a time when China's might has ceased, when we will have to thank them for those islands… Clearly, eventually, those artificial islands will be ours if we can ask China to leave.

You know that local gum called ‘Yakee’? It’s an attractive, brightly colored gumball that initially tastes sweet when you put it inside your mouth. But then becomes extremely sour when the sugarcoat melts. That is how I think of Roque at the moment I heard him say this. But just when I have not recovered from the initial sourball, Roque throws in the biggest piece when he commented about Benham Rise that I nearly choked.

Recent media reports show that China has renamed some parts of Benham Rise and has submitted this to the SCUFN (Subcommittee on Undersea Feature Names) of the IHO (International Hydrographic Organization), an intergovernmental agency “established in 1921 to support safety of navigation and the protection of the marine environment.” China renamed two seamounts in Benham Rise to Jinghao and Tianbao or ‘siren’ and ‘fill in’.

Be it an attempt to be entertaining, Roque responded with, “China has named many things—‘siopao,’ ‘siomai,’ ‘ampao,’ pechay, ‘hototay.’ This does not mean they are getting ownership of these.”

I looked at my pack of sour gumballs and wondered whether the Spox knew I would chew on these while I watched his live pressers to keep myself from spewing gazillions of vilification his way. Where he got the analogy still eludes me but his podgy frame hints why Chinese food for comparison. How far China is from Benham Rise is like asking a Dabawenyo who lives in Lanang to pass through Ulas while going to Tagum. Ulas is China in this analogy. To be serious, Benham Rise is located in the Philippines’ eastern border and far away from the West Philippine Sea of the controversial Panatag shoal. One in east and the other in west, there’s no need for the brains of Einstein here.

The dimsum analogy of Roque was contradicted by National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon saying that accepting the names given by China will give the impression that the two seamounts belong to China. Should Roque have watched ‘Call Me By Your Name’ his analogy about naming would have been more romantic and lyrical and not ampao.