Dangerous nonsense
The United States’ brazen move against the Maduro regime in Venezuela has spawned all manner of commentary, from thoughtful warnings that it heralded the further degradation of international law, to fretful worries about what this portended for a world where bully nations once again held sway over the rest.
But one of the most bizarre bits to come out of the blaring headlines was a plea made in the Philippines, written by one Greco Belgica, who once served as chair of the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission under the Duterte administration.
Undeterred by the fact that the Trump administration would likely give an appeal from nobody the shortest of shrifts, Belgica wrote on Facebook: “Dear President Donald J. Trump, Our country, the Philippines, is facing a massive struggle with drugs, government corruption, and the protection of our oil and trade territories in the West Philippine Sea—very similar to your issues in Venezuela.”
Then, the jump: “But, we are not asking for the US to arrest our sitting President. Instead, we ask for your help in bringing home the former President arrested and detained by the ICC. Our goal is for both the current and former leaders to face justice in our own Philippine courts. We want to restore the rule of law within our own borders. Thank you and God bless.”
Hilarious and appalling
Any sane person reading this would right away see the absurdity of Belgica’s position. He’s basically inviting the US to intervene in Philippine affairs the same way it muscled its way into Venezuela—but for what end? To extricate ex-President Rodrigo Duterte from the trial he’s now about to face at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for crimes against humanity.
The US itself is not a member of the ICC and has no standing in it. Duterte’s imprisonment and arraignment at the tribunal were all done according to established legal processes, no matter that Duterte supporters still bitterly disbelieve that fact. For Belgica—a former government official at that—to now invoke “rule of law” while begging the US to act illegally to spring Duterte from ICC jail is both hilarious and appalling.
The irony is that Duterte had been the most vociferous US critic when he was in power. He publicly and slavishly aligned his administration with China and Russia. But now that in Belgica’s imagination, an unfettered Washington under Trump could somehow rescue Duterte, he is practically begging the Americans to return to the Philippines as overseers, to impose his warped idea of rule of law “within our borders.”
A disturbing trend
This is arrant nonsense—but a dangerous one, given the apparent depths of delusion the Duterte supporters are willing to plumb. The willingness to embrace options that plainly undermine national interest—so long as they benefit the Dutertes—has become a disturbing trend among their ranks.
Nowhere is this clearer than in the issue of the West Philippine Sea (WPS), which Belgica also brought up in his appeal. He conveniently forgot to mention that it was his former boss Duterte, with his subservient, acquiescent pose toward Beijing, that had empowered the Philippines’ giant neighbor to harass and intimidate Filipino fishermen and Coast Guard personnel in the country’s very own exclusive economic zone.
But outdoing Belgica in addled thinking over this issue is Sen. Robin Padilla, who over the holidays said, without batting a dim eyelash, that “walang mapapala ang Pilipinas sa pakikipag-away sa China (the Philippines will gain nothing from fighting with China).”
Once upon a time, senators of the realm were held to be sages of reason, patriotism, and critical thinking. Now here is Padilla, peddling the pernicious alternate reality that it’s his own nation that had started the tensions in the WPS, and that Filipinos should wake up to the futility of pushing back against Beijing.
A wastrel senator
Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson on West Philippine Sea Concerns Commodore Jay Tarriela had to remind Padilla: “Our presence in these waters is not the cause of escalating tensions. We are there to prevent China from normalizing its illegal presence in the WPS while, at the same time, providing safety and security to our ordinary fishermen.”
Padilla’s salary, even as a wastrel senator, is paid for by Filipino taxpayer money, and yet he has no qualms taking up a position that aids and abets the Chinese coast guard and maritime militia that have relentlessly water-cannoned and chased his own countrymen in the WPS. Padilla, it seems, is nonchalantly willing to give up his country’s patrimony and, if he had his way, once again make the Philippines deferential to China.
Is this because of some suddenly brilliant geostrategic thinking on his part? Hardly. Padilla is sympathetic to China, only because his deathless support for the China-loving Duterte compels him to do so. Like Belgica and others of their stripe, they are willing to forgo the country’s interests if it means exalting their disgraced political god.
