See Xi Jinping face off with this Philippine reality

pines in its dispute with China over portions of the South China Sea. To that, President Duterte would be well advised to reprise Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao who responded to the belligerent stance of President Noynoy Aquino: “We are not a trigger-happy people but neither are we a nation that will back away from a fight when pushed against the wall.” Wen ended the statement with the ultimate threat: “The Philippines will learn this lesson to its cost.”

Would Duterte have the guts to substitute China for the Philippines in the above statement? I’d say, with effective US prodding, he would.

Of late, moves have been increasing for bringing about this eventuality. My layman’s perception simply tells me that if I were the US, all I’d do is keep twisting Duterte’s arms and make him toe my line in my confrontation with China.

Philippine presidents have come and gone with one common denominator: None of them had gotten elected or stayed in power without US consent. That same denominator applies surely to Duterte. If, along historical patterns, Trump must push his trade war with China into armed hostilities, the necessary theater is the South China Sea, and the Philippines’ perceived victory at the PCA versus China is the necessary trigger. With the intensifying Oust Duterte Movement held by the US like a sword of Damocles over Duterte’s head, can he refuse a

trigger at long last?

Again, shuddering this time, we quote: “You cannot create an island and say, the air above is yours,” together with the rejoinder, “I hope China would temper its behavior. I don’t want to quarrel with China.”

Isn’t this cue enough for President Xi to realize that President Duterte is up to something terrible and any disaster that may befall him under the circumstances is a misfortune not of his personal self but of the entire Filipino nation? If Duterte is ousted, what necessarily must ensue is a government installed through extraconstitutional process, as Cory’s was in the ouster of Marcos in 1986, or Gloria’s was in deposing Erap in 2001, though it was only in the former’s case in which a revolutionary government was installed; Gloria was presumed to have succeeded to the presidency constitutionally. In any case, what transpired was the establishment of governments clearly inclined toward the Philippine oligarchy held in spite by the burgeoning pro-people character of the ousted administrations.

It is highly bruited about that President Xi is coming to the Philippines to sign the $3.5 billion so-called mega Manila-Matnog rail agreement between the country and China, on top of other deals in business investments, infrastructure development, and agricultural production. My say here is that the Philippines currently is in turmoil. This is the problem that must be addressed, and though China repeatedly insists that it does not interfere in another country’s internal affairs, it becomes a test of the nobility of its intention to ascertain that its aid to the Philippines addresses the country’s current need.

And what the Filipino people cry today is not “Bridges! Railways! Condominiums! Drugs Rehabilitation Centers! Arms! Tourists!” but “Rice! Rice! Rice!”

The former cry has the immediate effect of satisfying warm business; the latter, people’s cold hungry stomachs.

The current cry for rice actually serves to dramatize the consummate quest by the impoverished Filipinos for a solution to their age-old misery. For a period, the poor pinned their hopes on the promise of Marxist liberation only to wake up after decades of failed protracted people’s war to the fact that armed struggle results only in the installation in power of an elite leadership, not of the masses

and end up poorer than before.

An innovation in the Philippine revolutionary setting is in place whereby the political character of a struggle for bringing about the liberation of the poor is entirely cast aside in favor of their economic empow-

Jinping, in his speech before the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, proposed with the force of mandate that the party be innovative if it hoped to really lead the Chinese people toward the ultimate achievement of socialism with Chinese characteristics. By innovative he meant getting away from dogmas and improving on hitherto accepted truths on Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought.

If Xi can grant the Chinese people that blessing of innovation for the achievement of socialism in China, why can’t he do the same to the Filipino people in their own quest for socialism with their own characteristics? Can he honestly claim to be a harbinger of the vision of a world community of common destiny, of shared future, by dealing only with governments and entrepreneurs?

Certainly, the Philippines is not a nation of businessmen and government alone. The Philippines is people above all.