Independent foreign policy

By all means, the Philippines should have an independent foreign policy. In charting a new course in international relations, President Duterte is correct in wanting to ensure that the Philippines will be subservient to no one. As he “recalibrates” Philippine foreign policy, so must its traditional allies.

Declaring independence and pursuing new friendships, however, need not mean abandoning old friends and severing ties, especially with nations with which the Philippines shares long- held values that respect civil liberties, promote free market competition and uphold a democratic way of life. Those values are enshrined in the 1987 Constitution, which was hammered out and ratified by the nation after a long, painful struggle against an entrenched dictatorship. All public officials starting with the president of the republic are sworn to uphold and respect that Constitution.

Genuine independence also means standing on one’s own feet, economically and in most other aspects of national life. This includes having the capability to protect one’s sovereign and territorial rights. This means not needing any nation’s permission to fish in areas declared by the United Nations as common fishing grounds. This means having the capability to police the nation’s waters against poachers and neocolonizers. This means giving the Navy and Coast Guard the capability to dismantle illegal structures and prevent the construction of new ones in areas declared by the UN as part of the nation’s 200mile exclusive economic zone, over which the country exercises sovereign rights.

Until the nation can do this on its own, it will need all the help it can get. And even when the nation achieves full capability to enforce its sovereign rights and protect its territory, it is always good to have all the friends one can get. China became the second largest economy and prospered not by looking inward but by opening its arms to the world, influencing global events by making friends rather than breaking ties or abandoning old ones. Geopolitics, as in local politics, is addition.