As the nation marked the 120th anniversary of the declaration of Philippine independence, many Filipinos are beginning to question if the country can really call itself independent 120 years after General Emilio Aguinaldo declared the Philippines free from Spain and almost 72 years since the United States granted us our freedom.
For one, Filipino fishermen are realizing that we have given up the freedom for which Filipino revolutionaries gave their lives during the Philippine Revolution and Filipino soldiers defended with their blood in the Second World War.
“Para kaming magnanakaw sa sariling karagatan (We are like thieves in our own seas),” lamented Rommel Cejuela, one of hundreds of Filipino fishermen who are being harassed with regularity by Chinese Coast Guard personnel around the Scarborough Shoal (Panatag Shoal) in the disputed South China Sea. It is worthwhile to note that a United Nations tribunal has ruled in a July 2016 ruling that the Philippine has exclusive rights over the area, which is 124 miles west of Zambales, well within the 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
The fishermen have repeatedly complained that the Chinese Coast Guard has been harassing them every time they go fishing in the Philippine territorial waters. A recent video by the GMA Network showed Coast Guard personnel boarding a Filipino boat and taking away part of their catch.
“They would check our containers and pick our best catch. We can’t do anything,” Cejuela said, “We are just trying to get along. Their ships are huge. What can we do as fishermen? If we refuse to yield, we will end up like crushed cans.” Cejuela said Chinese coast guard personnel would give them noodles, cigarettes and water in exchange for their catch but these are not enough to feed their families.
“I feel hard inside, but I have to accept it. They are the ones in power there,” he added. He should know. They have to yield to the Chinese nearly every day in Philippine waters that are patrolled by the Chinese instead of the Philippine Coast Guard.
The Philippine government, as usual, has not filed a protest against these blatant violations of the UN Tribunal ruling and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, of which the Philippines and China are signatories.
Instead, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque dismissed the incidents as “maliit na bagay (of little consequence)” and that what happened was a “barter,” not piracy or harassment as they really are.
Roque was just being consistent with the Duterte administration’s flawed policy of appeasement with regards the Philippines’ relations with China, especially on matters pertaining to the South China Sea territorial dispute.
In fact, during the Malacanang press conference that was obviously held to play down the incident, Roque insinuated that we should even be thankful that Filipino fishermen can now ply their trade in the region which, I repeat, is well within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines and ruled as within Philippine territorial waters by a UN tribunal. He said that during the administration of President Noynoy Aquino, the fishermen couldn’t even fish there.
But he forgot to mention that the Aquino administration filed a protest against the harassment of Filipino fishermen on Panatag Shoal that eventually led to the filing of the case before the UN Arbitration Court, which the Philippines won. The Philippine Navy also faced the Chinese Navy on a standoff that was broken only after both parties agreed to leave the area. After the Philippine ship had left, the Chinese ships turned back to Panatag and never left again. A clear betrayal by the Chinese, and Duterte trusts them with his life?
“The Chinese are there but the fishermen from Masinloc and other areas are now allowed to fish,” he added. Why are the Chinese on our waters in the first place? So, instead of protesting the Chinese harassment of our fishermen, we should be thankful that they are now being allowed to fish in Philippine waters?
It’s like a parent telling the school bullies who have just taken his small boy’s sandwich and apple juice and left him with just the apple slices, “Oh thank you for leaving my kid some apple slices and thank you for letting him attend his classes. We owe you.”
Perhaps, Roque should ask Foreign Secretary Peter Cayetano and Agriculture Secretary Manny Pinol – or maybe even better, President Duterte – to send an official letter addressed to the Chinese government thanking them for allowing Filipino fishermen to fish in Panatag Shoal and for letting the Chinese Coast Guard to patrol our waters. Maybe they’ll even give us some boats for the fishermen.
After all, Philippine foreign policy under Duterte vis-à-vis China has been a policy of mendicancy, or as Roque calls it, a matter of “bartering” — a piece of our sovereignty for a few million dollars of Chinese loans that have yet to see the light of day.
The Chinese don’t even have to sign a Bases Agreement or a Visiting Forces Agreement as the US had to do after granting Philippine Independence on July 4, 1946. After all, China has built a military base on reclaimed contested islands on the South China Sea that is just a missile breath away from our shores, and Chinese Air Force jets can apparently land on our airports anytime, as a Chinese jet did last week on a Davao airport ostensibly to refuel.
What was a Chinese military plane doing on Philippine air space? Why refuel in Davao and not on their islet base on the South China Sea? Why was its landing on a Davao airport kept from the public and revealed only when former Rep. Roilo Golez exposed it in a radio interview before he passed away this week?
Neither does Duterte have to sign a Mutual Defense Treaty with the Chinese. After all, Duterte himself said that Chinese President Xi Jin-ping has assured him that China would protect him from anyone who would attempt to oust him, that China will not allow his ouster.
Our revolutionary heroes must be turning in their graves this Independence Day. They gave their lives so that this first democratic republic in Asia could be freed from foreign invaders, and here comes Duterte and his minions giving it away to another foreign invader on a silver platter.
Happy Independence Day!