Distressed

There was distress in the Chinoy community even before that 14-year-old boy was kidnapped and mutilated.

Rumors circulated that a known Filipino-Chinese businessman was kidnapped and forced to pay ransom. This stoked fears the bad old days had returned – those days when members of the community became targets of organized crimes.

An epidemic of kidnappings happened during those years. The crime wave was suspected to have been perpetrated by criminal syndicates with links to the law enforcement agencies. A massive cleanup of the police was required to stop this wave of kidnappings.

Somehow the crime wave directed primarily at the Filipino-Chinese community subsided. Members of the Chinoy community felt safer.

These days, however, there seems to be a resurgence. As in the previous crime waves, this one is suspected to involve dirty law enforcers. A new element is the apparent involvement of ethnic Chinese criminals displaced by the closure of POGO operations.

The POGOs were unfortunate for us. They brought over a lot of unsavory characters from China. Those unsavory characters contribute to the caricature some have about Chinese residents here.

The POGO phenomenon fostered a sharp increase in anti-Chinese sentiment among ordinary Filipinos. A recent survey conducted by OCTA Research showed that nine of 10 Filipinos do not trust China. The sentiment inevitably spills over to attitudes toward Chinoys.

There is yet no indication that things have deteriorated into communal tensions. But it could go that way to everyone’s peril.

Some of our politicians have built a cottage industry out of peddling Sinophobia. They exploit the difficult South China Sea situation to run almost constant anti-China agitation – mainly to create the false impression these creatures of the pork barrel are the “patriots.”

Out of the constant stream of Sinophobic utterances coming from our politicians and senior government officials, our own nationalism is being remolded. The more common reflex is to condemn those speaking on behalf of more pragmatic and realistic relations with China as being anti-Filipino.

At its most jingoistic extreme, anti-Chinese agitation pushes our nation to prepare for war against the regional superpower. This will dispose us towards not only an arms race but also deepen communal tensions.

When an ethnic minority is distrusted, bad things could happen. Recall that when the coup against Sukarno happened in Indonesia in the mid-60s, nearly a million suspected members of the Indonesian Communist Party were massacred. Most of those killed happened to be Indonesian-Chinese, since the party drew support from the ethnic Chinese community in that sprawling country.

We should not be moving along this path of intensifying communal tensions.

During the many years of Spanish occupation of the archipelago, several pogroms were undertaken against the ethnic Chinese community in the islands. The colonial administration encouraged Sinophobia. It was an effective means to refocus the popular anger building against the European occupiers.

None of these pogroms redeemed our civility as a people. Nor did they reflect the close kinship between our two peoples evolving through many years of fruitful trade and cultural exchange.

I have had the opportunity to visit China the last few years. More and more frequently, I met ordinary Chinese who feared going to the Philippines. They feared getting treated badly by Filipinos. Some were genuinely fearful for their physical safety if they visited the archipelago.

This does not bode well for our tourism efforts. Many Filipino-Chinese businessmen, hopeful of closer friendship between our two peoples, have invested heavily in tourism facilities catering to Chinese visitors. If the politically-driven hostility worsens, these investments will be for naught.

Some of our most far-sighted corporations have invested in China. Their investments will thrive if our relations thrive.

Some of our biggest businessmen of Chinese ancestry have tried to warn against the Sinophobia cultivated by our politicians. Sinophobia and jingoism proliferates when the domestic political discourse is vacuous.

Recently, in anticipation of the celebration of 50 years of diplomatic relations between the Philippines and the People’s Republic of China, some of our business associations organized fora calling attention to rising Sinophobia and increased jingoism. These business associations have invested in fostering closer cultural understanding.

But the dangerous drift towards communal tensions continues. It is fed by unenlightened political agitation.

Recently, some of our officials have resorted to ridiculous stunts to help fuel distrust for China – and for all Chinese. Some Chinese residents were tagged as “spies” for putting video cameras atop coconut trees. Modern surveillance, if they must know, is conducted by means of low orbiting satellites.

Fifty years of full diplomatic relations with China is a big thing. But our government does not seem inclined to recognize that. Having taken a short-sighted pro-American stance in our foreign policy, it is understandable that they find this anniversary awkward.

If we look long into the future, however, it should be easier to understand that cultivating distrust of a neighboring country and inciting animosity towards a significant cultural community in our midst cannot be a productive way for forging a sustainable future. The little scrimmages we indulge in at the South China Sea should not overshadow the much larger strategic benefits that closer collaboration with the regional superpower brings.

The relationship between the US and Canada might help us understand a way forward. While Canadians and Americans might dislike each other, they cannot escape geography.

Neither can we and the Chinese.