Beijing propagandists must be pleasantly surprised with the front-page treatment of the Peace Ark hospital ship. They probably are envious too of the greater goodwill the US Pacific Fleet is reaping from typhoon rescue and relief in Leyte-Samar.
There’s a lesson for Beijing in employing soft power. Had it at once dispatched the naval craft from homeport Shanghai to the nearest Haiyan-ravaged zone, say, Palawan or Panay, China would have shown magnanimity. Sea rows with Manila would have looked fleeting against the backdrop of unending neighborliness by geographic fate. Its sea-hospital crew favorably would have been compared with that of an entire US aircraft carrier group in the opposite of Leyte-Samar.
But Beijing chose to be petty, pledging $100,000-aid, 0.0000006 of its $3.7-trillion currency stow, to show spite to a puny disputant. Only after global rebuke of its bullying did it add $1.4 million in tents and blankets, plus the Peace Ark. By then world news had belittled its initial against that of the NBA’s $500,000, Journey rock band’s $350,000, breakaway Taiwan province’s $200,000, and L.A. Lakers’ $150,000. Its additional donation too was pointed up as small, compared to private firms like Coca Cola, $3 million, and Ikea, $2.8 million. Worse for Beijing, Chinese scholars criticized the communist leaders for myopia. Beijing’s new princelings, it seems, cannot see beyond their noses to a horizon where China is a mature power.
The Peace Ark merited full media coverage because on it Chinese and Filipino soldiers, for the first time ever, engaged in common effort. But it arrived in Leyte-Samar after long hesitation by Beijing. The US sailors got there ahead, picking survivors out of the rubble, and clearing highways and re-lighting runways for relief trucks and planes.
Backed by symbols ranging from Hollywood to NASA and historic war-and-peace ties, America is adept with soft power in the Philippines. China can be too once it appreciates that three-fourths of Filipinos have Chinese ancestry. Through typhoon aid the US scored. In ongoing talks for increased rotational military stints in the Philippines, its emergency skills proved welcome. That’s bad news for Beijing, which against US scheme is expanding China’s oceanic Great Wall into the Pacific.
* * *
Palace sycophants are egging President Noynoy Aquino to defy the people’s will and keep his lump-sum presidential pork barrel. They know, more so after the Supreme Court’s 14-0 purge of the congressional “pork,†that the Disbursement Acceleration Program is just as bad. Yet they give worse advice for its retention at all costs. Use the bully pulpit to drown out critics of the DAP, they whisper while assuring The Boss to chat with the justices in-chamber. In Congress, meanwhile, more toadies are offering the P14-billion balance of lawmakers’ 2013 “pork†for Aquino’s use in disaster relief. It’s a ploy, so they can retain that “pork†called Priority Development Assistance Fund. The SC has frozen any more unconstitutional releases of the PDAF. For Malacañang and Congress to snatch the lump sum, for whatever lofty aim, is to weaken the Judiciary as the third branch of government.
On the other hand are Malacañang groups that are pondering ways out of the DAP, to save Aquino from political perdition. Whether to pre-empt or in submission to a looming SC adverse ruling, the message is one. That is, to acknowledge that the DAP is wrong for being an unconstitutional, opaque lump sum, and then to pledge to not use it again. They calculate that such tack would not lead to impeachment by a Congress that similarly erred with the PDAF.
DAP critics can only pray that Aquino shuns the flatteries and heeds the right. Most of them mean him well, having voted for him and backing his “Daang Matuwid (Straight Path)†of reforms. Only a few anti-DAP forces are minions of ex-President Gloria Arroyo who strive to weaken Aquino as foil to their prosecution for plunder.
The critics trust Aquino, voiced in press statements, blogs and rallies, to discern the good option from the vile advice. It’s lonely at the top. By following the popular will, Aquino risks antagonizing party mates who concocted the troublesome DAP.
But Aquino must make a choice. Perhaps he can find consolation and resolve from the words of his father Ninoy, born 81 years ago today: “I will never be able to forgive myself living with the knowledge that I could have done something and did nothing.â€
* * *
Letter from farmer-reader Larry Yolu: “Our sincerest thanks for allotting space to our grievance: the cheap palay buying price here in Eastern Pangasinan. After you urged the National Food Authority to set up buying stations, the price rose to P18-P21 per kilo.
“
* * *
The Addams family is being torn apart. Wednesday, their normal li’l girl who loves to play with scorpions and electrocute her kid brother Pugsley, has grown up, fallen in love, and wants to marry. But parents Gomez and Morticia, aren’t ready for it, much more Uncle Fester, Grandma, and butler Lurch. What to do?
Watch the Broadway musical The Addams Family, in Manila courtesy of Atlantis Productions.
Arnell Ignacio and Eula Valdez memorably play Gomez and Morticia in the biggest crisis of their marriage, and Jaime Wilson as Uncle Fester. Other stars: K-La Rivera, Ryan Gallagher, Carla Rivera Laforteza, Calvin Millado, Warren Saga, Anton Posadas, and Ikey Canoy. Guess which character Nyoy Volante and Jimmy Marquez alternate to portray.
Director, Bobby Garcia; choreographer, Cecile Martinez. Running for two more weekends, at the Meralco Theater, Ortigas Avenue, Pasig. Tickets available at all TicketWorld outlets; for details, visit atlantisproductionsinc.com.
* * *
Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8-10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).
Gotcha archives on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jarius-Bondoc/1376602159218459, or The STAR website http://www.philstar.com/author/JariusBondoc/GOTCHA
E-mail: jariusbondoc@gmail.com