Uncle Sam or Uncle Xi?

THE current squabble between pro-American and pro-Chinese factions in the country may have taken a turn for the worste lately following the China-pivot of President Duterte.

This is specially shown by the animosity displayed by both sides in their heated argument about the activities of the giant Communist state in the South China Sea (SCS).

The pro-American camp is egging the Duterte administration to be more aggressive in dealing with China’s continuing presence in the West Philippine Sea, especially at the Scarborough Shoal or Bajo de Masinloc.

The pro-China camp, however, is not so much bothered by Chinese occupation of the various features in the WPS, provided China continues to support our infrastructure developments so that we could at least catch up with our more successful Asian neighbors.

Those non-committal are keeping silent on the sidelines, watching the developments with blank posture. They may be waiting the time for the clear winners come out before they finally declare to whose side they belong.

This posture by many of our citizens is totally understandable.

Many Filipinos, with the exception of the millennials, are not psychologically prepared to trade Uncle Sam for Uncle Xi at the moment.

After having been under the spell of America for more than 100 years, with many of our relatives having taken abode in the old USA, our tendency is to stick to what is familiar rather than to place our bet in favor of a seeming stranger.

Let us not forget that Americans first set foot on our soil in 1901, when 500 of them debarked from the USAT Thomas, a US Army transport ship, to establish a new public school system and to teach us basic education.

The Thomasites, as they became known, also trained many Filipinos to become teachers, with English as the medium of instruction.

Although the Chinese were practically ahead of the Americans coming to our shores by hundreds of years, and we are, for all intent, Asians, America’s strong influence of having handed to us their language, a good part of their culture and their democratic institutions have made us “Little Brown Brothers.”