Flabbergasting Aquino-DFA move.
(Herman Tiu Laurel/ DieHard III/ Tribune column for 4-1-2015 Wednesday)
Was that the DFA’s (Department of Foreign Affairs) way of building up to an April Fools Day prank, the note verbale handed by the department to visitng Malaysian Defense Minister Dato Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein offering to downgrade the Philippines’ claim to Sabah in exchange for support for the Philippines’ case against China on the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea (SCS/WPs) dispute at the ITLOS (International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea). What was the response of the Malaysian government?
The headlines just days before April Fool’s Day said it all “Malaysia FM denies Philippines’ claim to Sabah”. Datuk Seri Anifah Aman retorted to the report saying asking, "What claim? We never recognize any claim, [so] the note is irrelevant," as quoted from the Malaysian news portal The Rakyat Post. But, of course, the validity and legitimacy to the Philippines’ claim to Sabah is unshakeable with every requisite proof, historical or documentary, legal and jurisprudence, and short only of actual physical possession.
The Philippines’ possession of Sabah was pre-empted by the 1946 thieving annexation of Sabah by the British Crown, making it a British colony to hand over to its ward Malaysia. This was done despite British North Borneo High Court Chief Justice C.L.C. MaCaskie’s 1939 decision stating the Philippines’ as “successor in sovereignty” of the Sultan of Sulu. Former Philippine Permanent Representative to the United Nations Lauro Baja Jr. is quoted by newspapers saying the Philippines’ claim to Sabah will be “prejudiced” if Malaysia grants the DFA’s request.
Baja said, “We are in effect withdrawing our objection to Malaysia’s claim of ownership to Sabah,… Even if we are not formally dropping the Sabah claim, it (the withdrawal of the protest) can be used as evidence against our claim.” Like experts and common sensed observers, Baja sees the Philippine claim on Sabah as much stronger than its claim on the Spratly islands disputed with that of China. Besides Sabah generates billions of dollars in annual revenues from oil and gas while prospects in the disputed SCS/WPS islands are still speculative.
It seems DFA under BS Aquino’s handpicked secretary Albert Del Rosario - aptly named “Super Amboy aka Giant Smiley of a foreign secretary” by veteran diplomat and Malaya newspaper’s resident DFA monitor Rey O. Arcilla - will do anything to spit at China even if the spit flies back right smack against the Philippines’ face. The same newspaper’s Ellen Tordesillas asks if the DFA compromise proposal to Malaysia has the approval of BS Aquino, but isn’t that assumed given the carte blanche the Giant Smiley always gets when it comes to spiting China?
While the whole world is joining China’s bandwagon of “trade-trade” and not “war-war”, jumping on the AIIB (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Malaysia among the first to join), the Silk Road Economic Belt, the Maritime Silk Road - the Philippines is stuck in its policy of antagonizing China on a matter that China since 1989 has already offered to talk about in a neighbourly manner so both can share, 50/50, benefits and security. But no, Aquino and Del Rosario want all of West Philippine Sea while giving away Sabah ending up with zero.
What is the Philippines’ to do about China’s building on the disputed SCS/WPS islands? We have always attributed this to U.S. and Philippines’ hostile signals. I am happy to note the Malaya’s veteran diplomat-writer’s similar view: “Why did China choose to build military garrisons on our islets in the WPS?… the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Arrangement (EDCA) that we foolishly entered into with the US. China merely wants to ensure that the US and her allies will not be able to dominate the entire WPS/South China Sea to her disadvantage.”
The Cold War vintage foreign policy of BS Aquino and the “Super Amboy aka Giant Smiley” DFA secretary Albert del Rosario is causing the Philippines to lag behind in foreign policy and international relations that is resulting in economic stagnation and retrogression, not to mention the self-inflicted insults that the DFA commits in its vain attempt to harm the universally friendly China which has sought no enemy in the decades past and has succeeded in creating countless friends on today’s continents all over the world.
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