A failure of leadership

(Last of two parts)

“The assurances of Xi Jinping were very encouraging,” President Duterte said. The President paraphrased Xi Jinping: “We will not allow you to be taken out from your office, and we will not allow the Philippines to go to the dogs.”

At a press conference in Davao before going to China to attend the 2018 Boao Forum for Asia, President Duterte professed his undying love for the Chinese President.

President Duterte said: “I just simply love Xi Jinping. He understood, he understands my problem and he is willing to help.”

It is certainly disturbing to see our President – who should be looking after his own people – relying on a foreign leader for his security of tenure as President. Moreover, such foreign leader represents an aggressor that is openly and illegally occupying land and waters that belong to the Filipino people.

If we accept as true President Duterte’s compromised loyalty to his country, then the actions that defined his administration’s policies in the West Philippine Sea make sense.

As enumerated by Justice Tony Carpio:

First, in 2016, shortly after the issuance of the Arbitral Award, President Duterte declared: “I will set aside the arbitral ruling. I will not impose anything on China.” President Duterte set aside the Award in favor of Chinese loans and investments that have barely materialized until this day.

Second, in the same year, President Duterte announced that the Philippine Navy will patrol only the 12-nautical mile territorial sea of the Philippines, in violation of the constitutional mandate that the Philippine State shall protect the country’s 200-nautical mile EEZ.

Third, in 2019, President Duterte announced that he entered into a verbal agreement with President Xi Jinping allowing Chinese fishermen to fish in our waters – violating the Constitution which provides that the fish in our EEZ belongs only to Filipinos.

Fourth, President Duterte’s repeated false assertion that China is already “in possession” of the West Philippine Sea. This recklessly concedes Philippine lands and waters to China more than what China actually possesses.

As well, may we add that in a televised address last May 5, 2021, President Duterte characterized the Arbitral Ruling as a scrap of paper that he will throw in the waste basket.

Through these acts, many Filipinos have reason to believe that our President has been discrediting our nation. For the last five years, what we see is a betrayal of the Filipino people.

When President Duterte admitted that he was “inutil” with respect to the West Philippine Sea, the honorable thing left for him to do was to step down, given his admission that he could not fulfill his sworn mandate as President to protect the West Philippine Sea.

In 2017, President Duterte moreover declared during the 115th anniversary of the Bureau of Customs in Manila that only two out of five of his statements are true, while three are just jokes.

This admission may be seen as another way to escape accountability and it also sums up President Duterte’s failed leadership in the West Philippine Sea.

We can say that there are two out of several of President Duterte’s statements that have turned out to be true: first, that he is “inutil” in protecting the West Philippine Sea and second, that he “simply loves Xi Jinping.”

Is it not about time for Filipinos to reject this man and what he represents?

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Amb. Albert del Rosario is chairman of ADR Stratbase Institute. This article is excerpted from his opening remarks at the Stratbase webinar on July 12.