China has been kind to us, we can only also show the same favor to them. Stop this xenophobia thing,” President Rodrigo Duterte said in a news conference after meeting with agencies on the novel coronavirus, which claimed its first fatality in the Philippines on Saturday.
“They are blaming the Chinese that (the virus) came from China, but it could always incubate in some other place,” said Duterte. He assured the public there was no reason to panic and that “everything is well” in the country.
“It is not the fault of anybody. Not the Chinese, not the Filipino, no one,’ Duterte said.” (“Philippine leader Duterte says xenophobia against Chinese must stop,” The Japan Times, Feb. 2, 2020)
THESE words were uttered not too long ago, from our President who is now acting under extreme panic, because of the sudden spike in the cases of novel coronavirus infections in the country. What scarcely a month can do to policy, right? The problem is, it may be a month too late for the country.
It isn’t a mystery where the contagion started. China itself admitted as much. But for the President to insinuate that “it could always incubate in some other place” is denial of the highest order. Yes it could, but we know where it all originated. So cutting off the source should have been a no-brainer, no? But was it, heck? Not really, because as he articulated his reasoning, “It’s anpeyr to da tsaynis.”
It’s always been a mystery to me why the President is exceedingly intimate with China. After all, during the campaign, he managed to sway voters to his side with his daring promises of riding a jet-ski and planting the Philippine flag on one of the disputed islands in the West Philippine Sea. And yet, what we have witnessed so far is the polar opposite. Not only have we cooled on our claims in the West Philippine Sea, we have also distanced ourselves from the US alliance and moved closer to the Chinese orbit. But what’s even more mystifying is the reaction of supporters who were attracted to him because of his anti-China bravado -- which is exactly nothing! In fact, it’s not only nothing, but many have tried to justify his actions by adopting his less-than-coherent views about the whole episode.
What’s wrong with the Filipino people? Where are the people “worth dying for,” that Ninoy Aquino embraced, when even his very own son is being vilified, and the memory of his wife and his own are being erased by blind followers intent on perpetuating a warped and revisionist view that now claims that the Marcos years was a glorious period in Philippine history? I still don’t know, and perhaps we will never know.
Strongmen remain enigmatically popular, until they are not. So went Stalin, Gaddafi, Polpot, Suharto, Saddam Hussein and a cabal of utterly detestable characters, until their own people decided enough was enough.
We can only hope, that chastened by this example of poor governance of the highest order, that 2022 will finally see the end of his malevolent legacy in the Philippines.