Palace urged to bare details of Chinese aid, loans

MANILA, Philippines -  Sen. Richard Gordon yesterday asked the Duterte administration to disclose the details of the billions of dollars in aid and loans from China to make sure no conditions adverse to the country accompany them.

“The President must explain what will be the priorities for these loans, where they will be used and how long we will be burdened by it,” Gordon told dzBB.

The senator was referring to the over $1 billion in official development assistance reportedly pledged by China, as well as $500 million in loans for military equipment.

Gordon said that if President Duterte does not want any nation or multilateral agency interfering in the country’s internal affairs, he must have the same stance when it comes to dealing with China.

The senator also strongly opposed suggestions to conduct any joint exploration with China over the resource-rich Benham Rise, located off the coast of eastern Luzon, as doing so “might give China ideas that it is also theirs.”

 Sen. Francis Pangilinan, president of the Liberal Party, yesterday urged his colleagues to support Sen. Paolo Benigno Aquino IV’s Senate Resolution 158 filed last October calling on the Senate committees on foreign relations and economic affairs to conduct a hearing on the administration’s foreign policy with the end view of protecting the national interest.

“The hearing should tackle not only this issue, but also the details of the $24-billion loans and investments recently sealed with China, as well as the Duterte administration’s decision to reject aid from the European Union,” Pangilinan said.

Detained Sen. Leila de Lima last week sought an inquiry into the multibillion-dollar infrastructure project of the administration that would be financed through foreign loans, mostly coming from the Chinese government.

“While there is a need to stimulate the economy, there is an even greater need for our economic managers to exercise extreme caution before advising our President to enter into any loan agreement of this magnitude,” the senator said.

“Lest we end up with a debt that our children, our children’s children, and even several generations thereafter will not be able to repay, and with commitments that would violate the Constitution or undermine our sovereignty,” she said. 

De Lima cited separate warnings from Forbes magazine and Reuters about the danger of long-term onerous indebtedness among allied countries under the China-espoused Belt and Road Initiative.

 Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto has also asked the government to consider first local suppliers of firearms and military equipment before accepting China’s offer to finance the acquisition of weaponry.

Diplomatic protest

Meanwhile, senators yesterday agreed that the Philippines should not be intimidated by the reported threat of war from China and instead file a diplomatic protest while continuing to peacefully pursuing its claim over the South China Sea.

Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III said the “we go to war” statement attributed to Chinese President Xi Jinping was not exactly shocking because in international relations, friendship among nations is abandoned whenever it jeopardizes national interest.

Pimentel said Duterte was simply pursuing the country’s claim over the disputed waters in his conversation with Xi in Beijing last week.

“The Philippines is a good member of the international community, and renounces war as an instrument of policy and readily embraces amity among nations,” he said.

“If this was a no-holds barred conversation, then we were given a blunt answer and therefore… we should tap the best, experienced, and most astute historical policymakers for this.”

Sen. Gringo Honasan, chairman of the Senate committee on national defense, said the country should continue pursuing the diplomatic route in pursuing its claim “with a clear sense of our national interest and foreign policy so that mutual benefits are achieved through peaceful and legal means, in accordance with international law.”

 For Gordon, China should stop bullying the Philippines and other claimant nations or end up regretting its aggressive acts, even as he expressed doubts on whether or not Xi really made such a threat, which constitutes a violation of international law.             

“We must show China we have the stomach to face them,” Gordon said in the same radio interview. “Don’t bully your neighbors, you’ll lose more than what you’ll gain.”

The senator said it is also possible that Duterte may have taken Xi out of context.

Nevertheless, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, the Chinese government, and even Malacañang must clarify to Congress what exactly happened in the conversation between Duterte and Xi.

 Likewise doubting the threat, Pangilinan recommended that Cayetano issue a diplomatic protest.

‘Helplessness not an option’

Meanwhile, opposition Rep. Edcel Lagman yesterday decried Duterte’s helplessness on China’s aggressiveness in its dispute with the Philippines over territories in the West Philippine Sea.

“President Duterte was pathetic when he admitted helplessness when Chinese President Xi Jinping threatened to go to war if the Philippines would enforce its sovereignty over the West Philippine Sea,” Lagman said.

“Helplessness is never an option, as recourse to the United Nations and calling to effect international agreements are readily available,” he said.

He added that the President’s acceptance of Chinese promises of aid and investments “appears to be in exchange for not enforcing the arbitral award of the UN-supported Permanent Court of Arbitration in favor of the Philippines over the vast and resource-rich areas of the West Philippine Sea.”

“Sacrificing Philippine sovereignty for contingent aid and investment from an expansionist and militarist China is definitely not a measure of an independent foreign policy,” Lagman stressed. – With Jess Diaz