Aid vs. sovereignty

(January 4, 2007) IN MY last column, I said the U.S. showed us who’s the boss and recent developments tell us how this is done and why we had to follow.  Washington said they didn’t force the Arroyo administration although President Gloria Arroyo said she was “pressured” to hand over Lance Cpl.  Daniel Smith to U.S. custody pending appeal of his rape case.

I also said in my last piece that the country was about to lose part of the $114 million military package, aside from the cancellation of the US-RP joint military exercises, if Smith was not handed over. That is a lot of money, but beside that, the Arroyo administration could not afford a strain in the US-RP relations. It is not going to be her who will make this happen at a time when there are Muslim terrorists in southern Philippines, although I believe that this is more of an economic problem and can be resolved domestically without outside help, and when U.S. budgetary resources, including financial aid, are stretched to the maximum because of the war in the Gulf region.

It is unfortunate that some of our kababayans would agree to the manner in which the Arroyo administration bowed down to the demand of the United States. But I am most appalled at the way the president used that it was in the “best interest of the Filipino people.” Wait, wasn’t it that an American military personnel was found guilty of raping a Filipino woman? I cannot emphasize anymore that not only is Arroyo a woman president, the Filipino nation must learn how to stand up on its own two feet. So what if we lost U.S. aid? So what if the military exercises were cancelled?  

I’ve always been a proponent of the Confucius philosophy of teaching someone to fish instead of giving him the fish. The Philippines, being an agricultural country, awash with natural resources and with a very fertile soil, must be able to feed itself. The waters around us is filled with all the marine life that can feed the entire 80 million Filipinos, which brings to mind the irony of holding military exercises when we cannot even go after illegal poachers that are stealing our fishes and other marine life.

All the financial aids we have received must have been enough to run the engines of the economy. If Malaysia, Indonesia and now even the communist Vietnam, are marching towards progress twice or even thrice the rate of that of the Philippines, then we shouldn’t be dragging our feet and just watch them leave us behind. Instead of building a strong military, we should be acquiring technology and equipment to improve our manufacturing sector. 

We should be building fishing boats with the latest in catching gear, a more advanced canning industry and establishment of fish markets that can compete with Japan’s, where tunas are sold in thousands of dollars, where every ounce of fish meat is sought by the highest of bidders. We can do the same in the Philippines, given the same type of technology in refrigeration, fish wharfs and ports.  Heck, bangus is even better if it comes from Taiwan, where they are better cultured and raised in controlled environments. Mas malalaki daw at mas mataba. 

Actually, the real reason is that Taiwan did the marketing. We failed to use our friendly alliance with the Americans to harness our milkfish industry so that we could’ve captured the bangus-loving folks all over the world, including even the Chinese. Doesn’t that even bother you?

It is high time we stop begging for aid, especially when such assistance has conditions attached to it that we sometimes forget that we are a sovereign nation. We have been subservient to many occupiers, who have denied us our right to exist peacefully and freely. We should exploit our very own resources, but we should not rape our ourselves.(RFL)