While we worry about the next meal and bow our heads in shame over so many scandals involving government, now comes Congress with another sellout. The Bicameral Conference committee has just approved a version of the Baselines Bill that effectively excluded the Kalayaan Islands and Scarborough isles from Philippine territory. This version, which Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile termed as the “best” that these legislators can come up so far, is slated to be approved by both Houses and submitted for signature to the President.
Former Philippine Representative to the United Nations Lauro Baja was shocked to learn that this 14th Congress has just sold out the claim of the Philippines in a nonchalant fashion. This bill effectively erased decades of debates and studies undertaken by our country’s diplomats just to defend our claims to these oil-rich islands. And what was the reason of these “distinguished” traitors, err, legislators?
” The Chinese and the Vietnamese will go to war against us if we continue our claims, ” says Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile. Enrile must have probably thought that we’re in the 19th century where gunboat diplomacy was the norm rather than the exception in international diplomacy. Or, probably he thinks that all Filipinos are octogenarians, weak and unable to defend their own lands against foreign intrusions. Enrile must have been asleep. For, ever octogenarians among us, who fought those global wars and survived, will fight on for their country, unlike this prodigal son from the North who shake with fear just by the very prospect of hearing a whimper of protest by these wealthy Chinese Communists.
This bogey, it seems, was created just to justify the obvious sellout of these islands. And for what cost, you ask? China reportedly offered US$ 8 billion in loans just for the Philippines to drop its claim in the Kalayaan islands.
Why are we so obsessed with selling our islands, our mountains, our lands, our rivers and streams? Have we no love for our beloved country? Have we forgotten that our heroes and forebears fought with their lives and their blood just to create this Nation of 82 million souls living in 7,100 islands? Maybe, it’s our perverse understanding of the concepts of a borderless world? Or maybe, just maybe, some of us, particularly those who we elected as leaders, are so obsessed and hungry to get hold of that US$ 8 billion bonanza that they don’t think about the disastrous effects of such a sellout to future generations?
We are so unfortunate to have a Senate President that thinks he owes his post to the Chinese and the Vietnamese Communists. We are so unlucky to have a Speaker who wants to sell every parcel of prime property to foreigners by lifting Constitutional provisions. These former bar top-notchers are the country’s foremost real estate agents who think they owe their lives to their patron, under the ignominious name of Gloria Arroyo.
Such a waste of talent, these two men of traitorous natures. It is a shame that we now live in a generation where graduates of AIM, in the likes of Celso delos Angeles Jr. use their talents to scam people out of their lifesavings. It is a shame that brilliant legal minds, such as these two men from the North and the South, conspiring to offer the Philippines as a tribute to their Chinese masters in Beijing. Shame that these so-called “brave men” who fought the dictatorship, are now the ones carving these beautiful country into little fiefdoms and selling those islands to the Chinese, an obvious admission of the frailities of our crooked souls.
” RP is for sale.” We have sold our morals already. We gave up our brothers and sisters to Middle Eastern masters due to poverty. We sold our organs, our bodies, to the highest bidder from Europe and the United States. Now, we are selling the very land, the very soil, we tread and we owe our very lives.
What’s so sad is that we don’t mind giving these islands to foreigners. When we were presented with the prospect of peace with our fellow Muslim kin last year, with the MOA-AD, we screamed and threatened to unleash the dogs of war against our blood brothers. Yet, when we now see the prospect of losing our claims to these islands and also face the prospect of losing yet another, this time, Sabah, silence.
We deserve our slavery.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Patricio…
Not WE…THEM!!!
Hell yeah WE Love this country…THEY dont!!!
Again…what are we going to do? So many Intelligent, articulate and extremely good bloggers here in FV…what are they going to do?
I know…go on blogging…while the politicians are robbing us and selling our islands, mountains and soon..our souls.
Pat,
A most cogent post!
Enrile is a Political Opportunist. Who will serve
anybody in Power. He was with Marcos, assisted
in the Dictatorship and the Plunder of this country.
When the Marcos regime was falling. He conveniently changed sides, to save himself.
Now he is with the Arroyos, as Senate President.
Assisting in shoring up a falling regime. And
perhaps plundering again.
Tigers will never change their Stripes. Nor,
Leopards will change its Spots.
He is a Wolf in Sheep Clothing…
Man Karyo,
Then we need the guys from animal control to put them all back to cages..where they belong
bwehehehehe
Good post, karlmarx. Just lower the histrionics man, ang puso mo.
Two points:
1. Senator Santiago stated that the bill’s present form is the best that could possibly be achieved (‘deliverable’)under a .
2. Senator Enrile is stating a reality. What good is a territorial claim if one is not Willing, Able, and Ready (read as: WAR) to enforce it. With RP’s navy and coast guard, I doubt it.
But he shouldn’t have put it in those words. Baka gerrahin tayo ng China at Vietnam.
Again, ang puso mo. :)
i hope congressman cuenco will rally his lower house colleagues to thumb down the agreement, as he so earlier suggested if such cartographic erasure happens. if they don’t, why not send both houses to kalayaan islands.
Apparently, members of Pinas Congress have not noticed yet that legal claims do not easily get erased by actions of war.
as i said before, WE CANNOT KEEP WHAT WE CANNOT DEFEND.
and i doubt whether the u.s. or the other asean countries, with which the philippines have a “mutual” defense treaty, would go all-out defending our claims even assuming we prevail in any international “tribunal”. let’s not forget what happened to argentina in the falkland island “war”, among others.
i think wishful bravado is not the way to go, unless we are capable of, and willing to face china and/or vietnam mano a mano. i don’t think courage alone (of which i don’t doubt our people have in good measure) is enough.
just point of fact…
we have not dropped the claim, right? the bicam used the term “regime of islands” which is in line with the law of the sea.
Dismembering the Kalayaan islands and Scarborough isles from Philippine territory, isn’t that an act of high treason subject of the wisdom of the Supreme Court – in an appropriate suit filed?
What aggravates the situation is to know, if true, that the proposed bill is in exchange of some $8 billion from the Chinese government in loans, not grants, to be paid back?
Is the GMA regime needing so much money in this forthcoming elections as to have to siphon off again some monies from foreign-funded loans ala WB?
What can Pat Mangubat do? Now, people realize why the Senate president should not have been replaced by my former boss, Enrile.
It is clear from Pat that our legislators are for sale. They are our “Bob Dole”s in Philippine society.
Now, they can extract our natural resources and day in and day out, they will ‘fish’ for fish and ‘oil’ for oil. God damn it!
The height of idiocy.
The height of lunacy.
The depth of psychosis.
With no territory to defend, no sovereignty to protect. Just nothing. National life in RP is headed for the worse under a regime callous about corruption.
In exchange for loans. Loans! That’s like saying we’re giving the islands away with interest!
Have a borjer.
If you dont stand for something, you will fall
for anything. We are now falling to everything,
every kinds of political opportunists, like
Enrile…
WE CANNOT KEEP WHAT WE CANNOT DEFEND
This is funny…why dont we just give up the whole country..sell it to the foreigners..afterall our military is not equipped to defend the country in anyway against other countries…because their generals and ex-generals were so busy stealing money for their own interest together with their commander-in-chief and other clowns slash politicians.
ridiculous!!!
While I disagree that Scarborough Shoal should be considered a “regime of island”, I agree with the Baseline Bill that we should treat Kalayaan group as a “regime of islands.”
This is because such is the right way of asserting our sovereignty without disregarding international law.