Why Duterte ‘separated’ from the US
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THE more discerning among Filipinos know that President Duterte made a mistake by aligning himself with China.
With hoopla and fanfare Mr. Duterte early in his presidency made the astounding declaration that he was “separating” from America and siding with China and Russia “against the world.” Whatever that meant, Duterte had cut the umbilical cord from the United States, the Philippines’ traditional global ally.
On its face, there was nothing wrong with that. Countries need friendly relations with other nations. No nation is an island in itself; it needs others to buy its products and from whom to buy goods, technical know-how, and services in order to survive in an interdependent world. It needs allies in order to defend themselves as a bloc against potential enemies.
So, whether the Philippines aligns itself with America or China is not the crucial question. The more relevant question is why does the Philippines have to choose between the two global players when it can be friends with both?
Duterte actually talks about having an independent foreign policy that sides with no particular nation. But, in practice, that isn’t how Mr. Duterte is behaving. He has actually put our country in the hands of China; he has chosen China as the Philippines’ patron. He is a dictator in his own country, but he’s being dictated upon by another dictator.
Indications tell us Duterte had no choice on the America or China question.
Duterte had had a longtime hatred of America. I don’t know whether the American visa story is true or not, but it went around early in the Duterte presidency that he was denied an American visa in his younger days, pursuing a woman who had gone on to live in America.
Claiming ideological leftist links and allegedly espousing socialist leanings, he developed a personal antipathy toward the Americans. It’s hard to believe that a person could adore the autocrat Ferdinand Marcos and at the same time have sympathy for communist aspirations. But let’s accept Duterte’s claim that he’s a socialist.
US President Barack Obama’s mild advice to him to “do it the right way” in getting rid of the illegal drugs menace in the Philippines, meaning to go through the courts instead of summarily killing drug suspects, seems to have been the last straw to break the camel’s back in Duterte’s relations with America. He cursed and blew off Obama and America as allies.
And so, Duterte crossed his Rubicon regarding that particular foreign relationship. There was no going back. America out, China in.
And, in that equation, Duterte hated everybody who had fair skin. He would soon hate not only the Americans but anybody who was white (even though Obama isn’t white). If you’re European, Latin American, Australian, or a New Zealander, Duterte hates you and that’s that.
So, even if all of us 110 million Filipinos told Duterte that the Philippines should be friendly again with America, he wouldn’t do it. Not only because he’s hard-headed, which he is, but because he hates white people and has made no bones about it. And with that, he had nowhere else to go to but China.