THE hullaballoo against China has never ceased ever since a Filipino fishermen’s boat was rammed by a Chinese vessel around two weeks ago. Some of the Filipinos want to see a “patriotic” action by the President against China.
The action of President Rodrigo Duterte after the incident remained constant: calm, which is rightfully perceived as “insensitive” to his fellow Filipinos who were a victim of “bullying.”
And it is also rightfully perceived as appalling.
However, it seems the more appalling part is that this act of “patriotism” some Filipinos want to see in the President is for him to fan the “war-freakishness” of some of our countrymen.
Filipinos, as shown in historical accounts, are brave and do not surrender easily, especially when it’s their rights that are trampled upon by other nationalities.
However, it is times like this that Filipinos must act together to achieve a common goal which is to seek a peaceful means of resolving the South China Sea dispute, which often the cause of instances like that of the Reed Bank incident.
War is the last thing that anybody with a sound mind would want to go to.
The President, as the father of our nation, has been undertaking diplomatic actions regarding the Chinese incursions in the disputed sea. Among the recent actions he has been undertaking is raising the issue of the Reed Bank incident in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit held in Bangkok, Thailand last weekend.
He also stated to the member-countries that “the Philippines will continue to push for the full and effective implementation of the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea,” to prevent situations like the Reed Bank incident from happening again.
In recent news reports, the president also vowed to raise the issue of the China’s “nine-dash line claim” in the same Summit, and we would never know how “lengthily” he talked about it in the Summit’s closed door and informal session. But one thing is sure, the government is doing something about the incident in a very “cautious” manner to avoid “hate war” from happening. After all, “in war, there are no winners, only widows” and orphans.