Duterte’s “inato” diplomacy: Dawning of a new age in Philippine foreign policy

The successful conclusion of the ASEAN Summit occasioned by its 50th anniversary under the Chairmanship of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, has been a testament of PRRD’s unconventional and creative leadership in foreign affairs.

A case in point is the disputed island and maritime claims in the South China Sea among several sovereign states, notably China, which without the “rubber band” and “realpolitik” diplomacy approach of PRRD, could have triggered a crisis of global proportions, both in political and economic terms, including even military. This kind of diplomatic method is unique variant of a very nationalistic embodiment of a policy that puts first the interest of the Filipino nation regardless of consequences in our relations with other countries. Like a rubber band, by its characterization, it is flexible, resilient or pliable as demands of the best national interest require. It is not circumscribed by ideological considerations as the country expands its dealings with the rest of the world.

Another case in point. Despite his Machiavellian streaks and the pundit’s verdict (I was one of them incidentally during the start of his presidency) that Duterte is a diplomatic-disaster-in-themaking, he was able to singlehandedly change the methodology of the geopolitical game like a master chess tactician. He brought a perceptive rationality in diplomatic relations that contributed immensely to the stability in the region or in the emerging superpower clash for influence in the Western Pacific.

With the vacuum created in geopolitical leadership in Southeast Asia by the irrational foreign policy of President Donald Trump, and his country’s withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP); in the world stage, PRRD was able to smartly seize this opportunity to make the Philippines a major player, if not a significant one, in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

In short, PRRD has upended regional diplomacy and his country’s ties with major powers to unparalleled level. He was able to put ASEAN on the map and at par with the other regional economic grouping whose membership includes the world’s economic superpowers.And in particular, the strength and importance of ASEAN in the region, via-a-vis the European Union, APEC, Russia, China, East Asia and the United States became pronouncedly magnified as a result. Past Philippine Presidents can only envy what PRRD has done in his less than two years in office.

Indeed, PRRD Duterte has shifted power politics in the region, whether by default or by design, as no ASEAN leaders have done before. “Inato” (a colloquial Bisayan term for “in our style” or “in our own ways”) in his ways, he did not follow any observed international norms but instead he remained unpredictable in behavior both in the domestic and international fronts throughout his ASEAN chairmanship. As one writer aptly said: “Hate him. But you can never deny the fact that he knows diplomacy, international relations, and geopolitics more than any four-decades-old-sloganeering idea of statesmanship and diplomacy.”

This unique and peculiar “Inato Diplomacy” of PRRD did not only create an environment of non-confrontational but assertive conduct of diplomacy which