In this extraordinarily imperfect world, there are military superpowers and then there is the rest of us. But even among the rest of us, some are still simply better than the others. And the remarkable thing about those who are better than the others is that they got better on their own accord. They found their way out of the maze of mediocrity into the light of respectability.
The Philippine military, sad to say, does not belong to the above-mentioned category of being better than the others among the rest of us who are non-superpowers. Even if we were in fact actually better, that does not seem to be the estimation of most Filipinos. We have so little respect for our own military capability.
And the reason for this is our continuing equation of ourselves with the United States. We have always forced ourselves to live in the shadow of America. For as long as we live in that shadow, the illusion of strength strengthens us. When Filipinos think of Philippine military strength, they do not think of numbers --- how many soldiers we have, how many ships, planes, tanks we have in our arsenal.
When we think of our strength, we think of words. And not too many words at that. Just three --mutual defense treaty. These three words can be paraphrased exactly into also three words --come to papa. Whenever we get into trouble, we always take comfort in the thought that we can always come to papa.
Well, there might no longer be a papa to come to. Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has caused the start of the process that would formally end the Visiting Forces Agreement spinoff of that Mutual Defense Treaty the Philippines has with the United States. The decision of the president is not as petty and frivolous as his enemies and critics would like to think it is.
The partnership (some call it friendship) between the Philippines and the United States has been a long and storied one. But it is not exactly a very equitable partnership. The Philippines has always been regarded as a poor, second-class partner by America even if America does not admit it. It always invokes its long-standing "friendship" to belie claims of inequitable partnership.
To be sure, there are millions of Filipinos now living the good life in America. It is this good life that obscures many uncomfortable realities that define US-Philippine relations. What many do not readily admit is that it was never friendship that opened America's doors to these Filipinos. The truth is, these Filipinos brought skills, talents, and professions that America needs to further strengthen and enrich itself as a nation.
Now this relationship has turned icy. And the Philippines is in a panic. It has lost the grip of papa. For the first time it is faced with the prospect of taking its first steps alone. But the funny thing is we are not a baby. We are a fully grown adult taking baby steps for the first time. We are belatedly coming to grips with being self-reliant. And we are not doing a good job of it. We make so much noise. We are like a real cry-baby.