US can’t afford to ignore the Philippines

By Herbert Vego

THERE’S more than meets the eye to the courtesy call of U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in Malacañang on Thursday (July 29).

It was not just a getting-to-know-you visit. He had a mission – to prevail upon Duterte to revoke his unilateral termination of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States.

Mission accomplished, but not without Duterte announcing a face-saving justification – in exchange for more donations of anti-Covid vaccines.

The black American’s visit was obviously aimed at rebuilding an alliance that had been declining in recent years because of Duterte’s “friendship” with China’s President Xi Jin Ping. Duterte has been tolerant of Chinese intrusion into our claimed territories at the West Philippine Sea.

It is thus doubtful whether Duterte would relish the United States’ commitment as vested in the Mutual Defense Treaty (MTD) of 1951 binding the US to defend the Philippines when attacked by foreign forces.

The “reconciliation” with the US could further derail the slow “Build Build Build” program of Duterte which relies on financial grants and loans from China to build roads and bridges. Millions of Chinese workers are believed to have entered the country in the last five years of the Duterte administration.

Duterte has made no secret of his pivot to China as a possible way to perpetuate himself or his family dynasty in power. There was a time when he said before a gathering of the Chinese Business Club, “Kung gusto ‘nyo, gawin ‘nyo na lang kaming province, parang Fujian.” (If you want, just make us a province, like Fujian).

Duterte’s reliance on China, however, negates his vaunted “independent foreign policy” that supposedly abhors foreign “meddling” in internal affairs.

It would be naïve to assume that US “concern” to save Philippine democracy from Chinese communism lurks behind President Joe Biden’s “fear” of losing the VFA. With the American presence in the guise of military exercises with Filipino counterparts, the US could deter expansionist ambition in Southeast Asian territories along the South China Sea.

No wonder, when news broke out in March 2021 that 220 Chinese vessels had anchored at the Julian Felipe Reef, Biden authorized the immediate deployment of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) and missile cruisers within the vicinity.

The Group of Seven (G7) nations consisting of the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom have been alternately conducting “freedom-of-navigation drill” along the long South China Sea to keep the waterway open. They have criticized China’s construction of islands and build-up of military facilities that could be used to restrict free movement.

Naturally, they would not want a Filipino leader beholden to communist China.

The latest news about 12 United States senators urging the Biden government to condemn the human rights abuses in the Philippines could prod the International Criminal Court (ICC) into fast-tracking its full investigation into the Duterte government’s crimes against humanity.

Since the beginning of the Duterte administration in June 2016, at least 8,000 people have been killed by the police in the government’s “war on drugs”.

Well, Duterte’s and his family’s political future could be shaped by the outcome of the ICC probe.

—0—

‘NO DISCONNECTION’ PRONE TO ABUSE

COULD MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) indefinitely sustain its “no disconnection” policy as long as Iloilo City remains under enhanced community quarantine?

This was the question that we asked MORE Power’s corporate planning head Niel Parcon on the talk show “Tribuna sang Banwa” on Aksyon Radyo last Sunday. It has been almost two months since the company compassionately stopped disconnecting lines of electricity users who could not pay their overdue bills.

“I think around 40 percent of our customers have already postponed payment of bills as a result of this policy,” Parcon said. “This could not go on forever.”

This corner agrees because, as the city’s power distributor, MORE Power depends on income from its customers to pay the power sources. If the customers’ bills exceed their capacity to pay, they would eventually be disconnected as soon as the ECQ is lifted.

“And so we ask everybody to keep their power consumption within their ability to pay,” he supplicated.

Parcon added that through the efforts of company president Roel Z. Castro, the company has found a way to reduce residential power rates to the max, from P10 to P6.45 per kilowatt-hour, would lead to an unprecedented P3.55 in savings.

MORE Power now sources electricity from the geothermal plant of the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM) in Leyte.  This should be good news to environmentalists who decry the “dirty” energy from fossil fuels.

The storm surges that recently wrecked old poles, cross bars, transformers, cables and other company facilities must have depleted the said facilities. Does MORE have a stock of replacements?

“Yes, our stock of every item is sufficient,” he answered. “With our five-year modernization plant with P1.9 billion in capital expenditures, we hope to rise above operational problems.”