IT TAKES some time to realize that the Asean Summit and related summits and the celebration of its 50th Anniversary of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are finally over. The occasion is so far the most fruitful event in the life of the Asean as the association now stands proudly as one solid organization that no longer depends on the coattails of other economies. The conduct of navigation in the South China Sea is now being crafted by Asean and China and rights of migrant workers are now a priority among the members nations.
Visiting heads of other states that are non-members of the Asean have witnessed the solidarity of southeast Asian countries which brought them to the level where the association can now negotiate for better terms and conditions with other economically dominant and domineering nations. Pres. Rodrigo Duterte, had been criticized and lampooned by critics for his vile language but we now see that in asserting for rights and demanding respect as a sovereign nation short of sending scud missiles the other option is to shock them to their senses with some dose of expletives.
That's what Barack Obama got. And what is it for a country mouse like Duterte who had been witnessing how his country and countrymen been treated like vassals of domineering nations? Cognizance of sovereignty of independent nations no matter how small and economically deprived they maybe. As for Duterte who is now President, he won the friendship and respect of the powerful leaders in the world - Trump of the USA, Putin of Russia, Xi of China and Abe of Japan.
Never mind that juvenile adult Justin Trudeau. He took up the issue of EJK and human rights with Duterte forgetting that his country committed one of the worst and despicable crimes of dumping its lethal waste in the Philippine soil. Once, Canada also threatened the thriving banana in Davao by funding local NGOs to declare that banana growers use lethal chemicals to control diseases. For awhile they also blamed banana chemicals as the cause of fish kills in catfish ponds also in Davao. This handsome idiot wants to stonewall these issues by taking up the issue of EJK which the opposition and its partners in the leftist organization and beneficiary pan-handling NGOs wanted to banner during the summit.
Trudeau behaves like the overbearing European legislators who had the temerity to insult and demonize leaders of countries like the Philippines in their fight against terrorism and vicious crimes. Canada and the EU have even come up with extrapolated figures from the Amnesty International which alleged that 30-million Filipinos die by state-sponsored extra-judicial killings. Where else did he hear the number of EJKs statistics in the Philippines? From the detained former Commission on Human rights Chair Leila De Lima who was appointed later as Department of Justice and then later as senator? Did he get it from the perjured witnesses of De Lima or maybe from the New York Times Magazine? Well sir, after all these decades De Lima etal cannot even produce a single piece of evidence.
Trudeau's defenders fault critic of misquoting him on the nagging garbage issue between the Philippines and Canada. They are right in saying that the legal impediments in collecting the wastes and shipping these back to Canada are now being addressed. Trudeau had been taking the Philippines as one big trash and now that this issue is brought out in juxtapose to his take on EJK he now suddenly tells us that the garbage may be taken back. Childish.