Don’t piss off DU30 or he’ll ‘kill’ you

could be invoked to go easy on suspected drug protectors, can’t the PNP invoke the same on suspected drug users and pushers? Oh, I forget, President Duterte has already expressed his support for Marcos and his group in the alleged shootout with a man in prison.

‘Independent foreign policy’

A dear friend, business executive RollyNarciso, has some incisive comments on the “independent foreign policy “being pursued by the Duterte administration. He confessed to being confused by declarations of separation from America, pivot to China and Russia, and “China, Russia and the Philippines against the world.”

Rolly wrote in an email to his ESFAC discussion group: “The common usage of the word ‘independent’ implies separate and apart, can stand on one’s own, doesn’t need others.

“If so, an independent foreign policy requires that breaking away from one country should not lead to a substitution thereof by another country. That would amount to merely transferring the unwanted state of dependency on one to the other.”

If only the President would consult with his Cabinet members instead of immediately blurting out what comes into his head, there will be less confusion and there’ll be no need for “creative imagination” in determining what he really means and what he intends to do.

Rolly and I agree with former President Fidel V. Ramos that the more appropriate term is “interdependent,” not “independent foreign policy.”

He also wonders about the reference to China and Russiato assume the historical/traditional role of Uncle Sam.

“Are we possibly hitching our wagon to soon- to- be falling stars?” he asked.

Rolly cited a book he had just read, “The Next 100 Years (A Forecast for the 21st Century)” written by George Friedman and published in 2010, as the basis for his doubts on the wisdom of pivoting towards China and Russia.

“Friedman predicts that China will fragment in 2020-2030 due to severe political stresses between its prosperous coastal regions and its poorer interior regions.

“Russia will collapse as a world power, its military weakened by recurring border tensions with former allies in the bygone USSR era.

“The USA will remain strong economically, technologically, and militarily,” Rolly said quoting from the book.