Fil-Am 'patriots'

Fil-Am ‘patriots’

(Herman Tiu Laurel / DieHard III / The Daily Tribune / 07-24-2013 WED)

 

Filipino-American (Fil-Am) anti-China crusaders Loida Nicolas-Lewis and Rodel Rodis have been at the forefront of a year-long campaign to rouse the global Filipino community against what they call China’s “invasion” of Philippine territory.  From a failed boycott of Chinese goods last year and the assembly of US Pinoys for Good Governance (USP4GG) to purportedly clean up the Philippines while endorsing a list of its favored candidates for the recent 2013 senatorial polls, to the recent convening of the West Philippine Sea Coalition (WPSC) with US Naval Academy graduate Roilo Golez and FVR man Rafael Alunan, there is indeed no shortage of “patriotic” rhetoric from their end.  But here are a few questions:

 

Have these crusaders said anything on the Malampaya natural gas project, where Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron-Texaco, operating in UNDISPUTED Philippine territory, have been extracting natural gas for export and for the natural gas-fired power plants feeding the dominant power distributor at rates pegged to high petroleum prices?  While the Philippines supposedly has a 10-percent share in Malampaya, it’s a pittance compared to what sovereign countries get: Bolivia, up to 82 percent; Ecuador, up to 99 percent--for oil priced above $23.  Yet even that 10 percent is misleading, as the consortium’s investment and taxes are charged to the country’s 10-percent stake.  Have we heard a pip from them on this blatant and grossly abusive Anglo-US plunder of our natural gas?

 

Worse, the US, Britain, and their local partners--principally the oligarchs (Ayalas, Lopezes et al.) and the corrupt political class--have not only inflicted that grossly iniquitous deal, our country was even forced to use much of its paltry Malampaya revenues for foreign military purchases.

 

On Sept. 2011, Budget Secretary Butch Abad said that $117 million of royalties from the gas facility will go to funding purchases of search-and-rescue and patrol helicopters--not for national emergencies but--“to guard Malampaya” (i.e. US and British interests).  Moreover, he admitted that about $10 million of the royalties was spent on refurbishing the Hamilton-class Navy frigates purchased from the US.

 

The $4.5-billion Malampaya project holds 2.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 65 million barrels of condensates.  Shell and Chevron are estimated to earn $250 billion in 25 years.

 

Then, there’s this other question that is crying out for answers from these “hyper-patriotic” fogies: What’s their take on the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) recently finagling from BS Aquino III’s negotiating panel 75 percent of all the wealth under the MILF’s supposed BangsaMoro substate--territories which include the vast, oil-rich Sulu Sea?

 

Behind the MILF and this so-called peace deal is the United States Institute for Peace (USIP) led by J. Robinson West, also the head of the world’s largest oil consulting firm, PFC Energy.  Among West’s clients is (surprise, surprise) Chevron-Texaco.  They are sure to exclaim, “It’s three for us (the US-MILF tandem) and one for you (98 million Filipinos)!”

 

Going by the Anglo-US record in the Middle East where only a few sectarian Sunni leaders are fattened, we can never expect ordinary Muslim Filipinos sharing in the oil and gas wealth.  Instead, they will be kept in medieval states of poverty while the MILF collaborators make hay.

 

Next, have we heard any patriotic pronouncements from these anti-Chinese “patriots” on the wholesale oil- and land-grabbing of Britain and Malaysia of the Philippines’ very own North Borneo (Sabah), most especially the ongoing murder and abuse of our fellow Filipinos there?

 

Despite this administration’s treasonous actions, the entire Filipino nation has been against the continuing alienation of that oil-rich area from its historic and sovereign motherland, and its original reigning sultanate--the Sultanate of Sulu.  Evidence of Filipinos’ overwhelming opposition to the continued separation of North Borneo from the Philippine archipelago is the way they have given their support to the Royal Sultanate Forces’ attempt to resettle in the Taosugs’ traditional homeland.

 

As far as I can remember, nothing has ever been heard from these Fil-Am “patriots” on this historic issue that is of primordial importance to the sovereignty and integrity of this nation.

 

And so we ask: What gains have accrued to the Philippines from the activities of these Fil-Ams and their local cohorts?  One of the moves that these “patriots” have praised is the elevation of the South China Sea territorial disputes to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (Itlos).

 

Assuming the Philippines gets its way in the Itlos, will that change the final equation in any way?  The only sure result is greater intransigence from the People’s Republic of China, where physical conflict would be the next step.  Any escalation would only make sense if the US joins the fray.  And will the Philippines gain anything from that?

 

From historical and present realities, it is a foregone conclusion that only the Philippines will be the final loser as it had been in World War II, where both the US and even Japan eventually won the war, with the Philippines continuing to wallow in devastation up to this day.

 

Anas Almasri, writing this year in Invest In Web site, says, “Chinese FDI (foreign direct investments) to the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nation) countries soared by 150 percent in 2011 compared to the previous year, the highest growth in the bloc’s top ten sources of FDI … Chinese direct investment to the Southeast Asian nations were enough to surpass that of the US… due to the US FDI itself decreasing by more than half in 2011.”

 

Militarily, Australian Peter Hartcher, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald in May this year comments, “We rely on the US at our peril,” as he noted how the 10 US aircraft carriers are already being negated by China’s hypersonic anti-missiles.

 

Meanwhile, as writer Bernie Lopez writes in one major daily that China has warned Manila that the presence of US bases in the Philippines will compel it to aim missiles at these facilities, Filipino economist Pancho Lara decries, “We are missing on the billions of investment funds of China.”

 

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