THE irony that laced the commemoration of the 120th year of Philippine Independence and the challenges to Filipinos were highlighted by developments concerning China.
That the Chinese Ambassador attended the Independence Day rites in Cavite and huddled with President Rodrigo Duterte would not have been a matter of comment except that the Chinese Embassy in Manila had issued a controversial press statement the same day which underscored the implications of the pivot to China.
The press statement, a reaction to media reports that the Chinese Coast Guard had been harassing Filipino fisherfolk in Scarborough Shoal by taking their choice catch, said that China “has made appropriate arrangement” for Filipinos to “fish in relevant waters out of goodwill.”
This is incongruous with the July 12, 2016 ruling of the Permanent Court Arbitration tribunal under the United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Sea that there was "no legal basis for China to claim historic rights" over the area within the nine-dash line that included the Scarborough (Panatag) Shoal.
The Chinese Embassy statement thus came across as like being told by a neighbor we are in dispute with over a property, which had been decided by authorities to be ours, that our use of it is only out of their benevolence.
Instead of addressing fisherfolk complaints that the Chinese Coast Guard made them feel like Filipinos were stealing from our own seas, Spokesperson Harry Roque orchestrated a press briefing where three fisherfolk were presented as evidence to highlight the fruits of Philippine-China “friendship” and the ‘noodles and waters for fish’ excuse was peddled.
There are also reports that more than three million Chinese have been allowed into the Philippines since 2016, Chinese missiles are present in the contested Spratly Islands, and a Chinese military transport plane landed in Davao City under questionable circumstances.
I am writing this on the occasion of Eid’l Fitr and got reminded of the message of Sultan Kudarat to Meranaw datus in 1639 as documented by Jesuit priest Francisco Combes and featured in the book Mindanao Muslim History.
Kudarat thundered: “What have you done? Do you realize what subjection would reduce you to? A toilsome slavery under the Spaniards! Turn your eyes to the subject nations and look at the misery to which such glorious nations had been reduced to. ...Do you think that the Spaniards consider you of better stuff? ...Do not let their sweet words deceive you; their promises facilitate their deceits, which, little by little, enable them to control everything. Reflect on how even the minor promises to the chiefs of the other nations were not honored until they became masters of them all. See now what is being done to these chiefs and how they are being led by a rod.”
Replace “Meranaw datus” with “Philippine government 2018” and “Spaniards” with “Chinese” and the anti-colonial exhortation of Sultan Kudarat remains as valid as it was 379 years ago. We should heed his words.
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