The need to unite against Manchurian candidates

For this 2022 elections, the Filipino people cannot afford to elect another set of candidates beholden to China. For the past six years, President Duterte, under the influence of China, has squandered the 2016 Hague ruling won by our country in the West Philippine Sea and, as in the case of Pharmally, allowed his Chinese friends to profit from the sufferings of our fellow countrymen amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

There is no doubt that these callous actions have prejudiced our countrymen.

Another six years of our country run by a set of candidates under the thumb of China would be incomprehensibly catastrophic.

It would be catastrophic not only for us, but for our children and grandchildren who have no choice but to bear the terrible burden of our benighted decisions. Another six years led by Manchurian candidates would be enough to give away our West Philippine Sea to a foreign aggressor and to callously forsake the livelihoods of our fishermen.

We are grimly aware of President Duterte’s self-professed love for Chinese President Xi Jinping, his devil’s pact with China for loans and investments that never materialized until today, and the reliable information that high officials from China are bragging that they have been able to influence the 2016 Philippine elections so that President Duterte won.

The above information about Beijing officials was based on personal knowledge from a source in The New York Times.

We should also view with grave concern the fact that candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has been visiting Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian around the time that Marcos Jr. filed his certificate of candidacy for President in October 2021.

Based on press releases, Marcos Jr. and the Chinese ambassador are not hiding this fact.

We should also equally view with grave concern the fact that President Duterte’s daughter, Sara Duterte-Carpio, is being supported by former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. In 2004, former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo illegitimately allowed China to explore the West Philippine Sea through the Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking (JMSU) in exchange for Chinese funds for the NorthRail and the ZTE National Broadband projects, in violation of the Philippine Constitution.

To paraphrase the American writer Taylor Caldwell, our country can survive its fools and even the ambitious, but it cannot survive treason from within. These Manchurian candidates will deploy full power and money for the 2022 elections. If elected, they will rot the soul of our nation and undermine its pillars, leading to a bleak and tragic future for our countrymen.

When will we fully realize that our future is at stake?

We are in a crisis – a crisis fueled by disloyal Filipinos who will bring our country down for the benefit of an encroaching and powerful neighbor. If we elect Manchurian candidates again in May 2022, then we open our gates for our collective self-destruction.

We, therefore, make this personal and urgent call to all those who love their country, their children and grandchildren, to strongly unite against Manchurian candidates who do not have our country’s interests at heart.

If there is a time for us to set aside differences to unite and help our country, that time is now and the upcoming 2022 elections. We should unite and vote for candidates with integrity, those who genuinely care for our countrymen and those who will protect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of our country.

Candidates often claim that they are running to help our countrymen and to uphold our country’s interests. However, these candidates should be judged not only by their words and social media marketing, but more so by their actions.

Are they giving up our lands and waters in exchange for money from China?

Did they commit or benefit from corruption in the past?

Will they bring justice to the criminals and the corrupt or will they shield them and maintain them as friends or allies?

We can obtain much needed clarity by examining the actions of candidates.

Each of us does not need vast resources in order to help. Each person’s full commitment to help is the most valuable of all, whatever resources a person may have at his or her disposal. Our strength will come from our unity, which we should all strive to achieve at all costs.

The anti-apartheid and human rights activist Desmond Tutu said: “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”

We are currently in a situation of injustice with China influencing our country’s affairs, with all the corruption being done at expense of our countrymen during a harrowing pandemic.

We must fight, as never before, for our country.

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Albert del Rosario is a former ambassador and secretary of foreign affairs.