"Leaving the South China Sea untouched?"

The problem with diplomacy is that much of the messages conveyed are polite lies window-dressed in the dignified language of truth. One of the most intriguing statements made by our president who chaired the just-concluded 31st ASEAN summit was that the South China Sea is better left untouched. How can that piece of territory be deemed untouched when China has already trampled on it, built many permanent structures on its shoals, constructed a runway much bigger that the NAIA and deployed hundreds of armed combatants to guard it? Should it be left untouched only by Filipinos?

The truth of the matter is that such a maritime territory, which has been claimed by the Philippines by historic title, is also called the West Philippine Sea. By any name, our claim over it enjoyed an international recognition when the International Arbitration Tribunal decided in our favor. But ignoring all political and diplomatic pressures, China has continued to ignore all our pleas, and all the adverse opinions of world leaders. Despite all these, we still welcomed its leader and praised his country and policies. The obvious reason is that we cannot really fight a war against that giant.

In the same manner that we cannot press the Canadian prime minister to take back the millions of tons of garbage that its companies dumped into the Philippines. Not because Trudeau is too handsome and that he wore our barong with more dignity and sartorial elegance, and not because he took time to buy hamburgers from Jollibee and visited our women's center in Tondo. It is because Canada is too big for us to antagonize. In the same manner and for the same reason, we cannot demand that Japan should pay damages to our women whom they abused as comfort women. The reason is that we are too small to fight Japan.

This line of diplomatic positioning also led our president to sing "Ikaw" which, of course, is the song of a jilted woman still expressing adulation to her philandering lover. Why? Because we, the jilted Filipinos cannot afford to antagonize a powerful albeit an unfaithful American lover. That song "Ikaw" was not a demure reassurance but an open declaration that the Philippines would remain loyal to Uncle Sam, while accepting favors and gifts from the Chinese and the Russians. Of course, the Chinese and Russians are not that dumb not to read between the lines the message conveyed by that song. That is another problem with diplomacy; one can tell a lie and dignify it in the melody and lyrics of a song.