China takes the offensive


It was short and clear. And combative.

In 10 paragraphs, Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian made known last Sunday, April 16, his government’s anger over the decision of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. allowing the United States military to preposition and store defense equipment, supplies and materiel in sites “only a stone’s throw away from Taiwan.”

He warned what China, which boasts of the strongest military in Asia and third in the world, might and can do: “… we will not renounce the use of force, and we reserve the option of taking all necessary measures.”

He laid out to the Marcos government how it could be affected adversely in case armed hostilities erupt in Taiwan, where over 150,000 Filipinos work, and what it should do to help prevent that situation from happening: “The Philippines is advised to unequivocally oppose ’Taiwan independence’ rather than stoking the fire by offering the U.S. access to the military bases near the Taiwan Strait if you care genuinely about the 150,000 OFWs.”

Two weeks earlier, when the pre-dominantly Catholic Filipinos were starting their observance of the week-long Holy Week retreat, the government released the location of the additional four EDCA sites: Lal-lo Airport in Cagayan; Camilo Osias Naval Base in Santa Ana, Cagayan; Camp Melchor dela Cruz in Gamu, Isabela; and Balabac Island in Palawan.

EDCA stands for Enhanced Cooperation Agreement between the Philippines and the United States signed in 2014 which established “agreed locations” in the country where the United States Armed Forces can have access on a rotational basis.

Under EDCA, “the Philippines authorizes the United States forces, United States contractors and vehicles, vessels and aircraft operated by or for United States forces may conduct the following activities with respect to Agreed Locations: training, transit, support and related activities; refueling of aircraft, bunkering of vessels; temporary maintenance of vehicles, vessels and aircraft; temporary accommodation of personnel; communications; prepositioning of equipment, supplies, materiel; deploying forces and materiel and such other activities as the Parties may agree.”

The four new sites bring to nine the EDCA sites in the country. The five earlier agreed locations are Cesar Basa Air Base in Pampanga, Fort Magsaysay Military Reservation in Nueva Ecija, Lumbia Air Base in Cagayan de Oro, Antonio Bautista Air Base in Puerto Prinsesa and Mactan Benito Ebuen Air Base in Cebu.

The two sites that are driving China up the wall are Lal-lo Airport in Cagayan, which is 590 kilometers to Taiwan, and Camilo Osias Naval Base in Santa Ana, Cagayan, which is 623 km to Taiwan.

The ambassador explained: “Obviously, the U.S. intends to take advantage of the new EDCA sites to interfere in the situation across the Taiwan Strait to serve its geopolitical goals, and advance its anti-China agenda at the expense of peace and development of the Philippines and the region at large. Many Filipino politicians and ordinary Filipino people are questioning whether opening new bases will serve the national interests of the Philippines. ’Why are the new EDCA sites only a stone’s throw away from Taiwan?’ ‘How will the Philippines effectively control the prepositioned weapons in the military bases?’ ‘Why will the Philippines fight for another country through the new EDCA sites?’ These are soul-searching questions of the Philippine people and also doubt by people in China and across the region.”

That’s when he raised the worrisome possibility: “But we will not renounce the use of force, and we reserve the option of taking all necessary measures. This is to guard against external interference and all separatist activities. The Philippines is advised to unequivocally oppose ’Taiwan independence’ rather than stoking the fire by offering the U.S. access to the military bases near the Taiwan Strait if you care genuinely about the 150,000 OFWs.”

On April 10, Marcos said he will not allow the EDCA sites to be used in any offensive attack. He added in Filipino, “If no one attacks us, they don’t need to worry because we won’t fight them.”

Taiwan is one of China’s core issues. Since 1949 when the then Mao Tse Tung-led Communist Party of China took over the mainland after more than two decades of civil war and pushed the Chiang Kai shek-led Nationalist Party of China to Taiwan – an island about 100 miles away – the Beijing government has made the One-China Policy a pre-requisite in its relations with other countries.

Under the One-China Policy, which the Philippines, the U.S. and more than 180 countries have adopted, the Beijing-based People’s Republic of China is the legitimate government of China and Taiwan is a province of China.

For many years, the world has seen peace under a delicate situation of “no unification, no independence, and no use of force” policy. In recent years, however, Beijing finds Taiwan under President Tsai Ing-wen leaning more towards independence.
Two years ago, I asked a Chinese journalist about the possibility of an armed confrontation over Taiwan, he said, “Not in our lifetime.”
Last month, I asked him the same question. His answer: “I’m not sure anymore.”

Marcos’ PH roadshow and the ICC probe

If you listen closely to Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla’s strident reaction to the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to resume the investigation into the killings related to Duterte’s war on drugs, he didn’t completely rule out allowing the ICC to come into the country.

“Definitely I do not welcome this move of theirs and I will not welcome them in the Philippines unless they make it clear that they will respect us in this regard,” he said in a press conference.

He added: “I will not stand for any of these antics that will question our status as a sovereign country. We will not accept that.”

Remulla knows his international law. He knows that a state’s sovereignty – the supreme right of the state to command obedience within its territory – allows it to enter into treaties. We exercised our sovereign right when we signed the Rome Statute, which established the ICC, on Dec. 28, 2000 and ratified it by the Senate on Aug. 30, 2011. Our accession to the treaty took effect on Nov. 1, 2011.
We knew the provisions in the treaty.

The Philippines’ withdrawal from the ICC initiated by former president Rodrigo Duterte took effect on March 17, 2019.

We are sure Remulla is aware of Article 127, paragraph 2 of the Rome Statute which states that a country’s withdrawal “”shall not affect any cooperation with the Court in connection with criminal investigations and proceedings in relation to which the withdrawing State had a duty to cooperate and which were commenced prior to the date on which the withdrawal became effective, nor shall it prejudice in any way the continued consideration of any matter which was already under consideration by the Court prior to the date on which the withdrawal became effective.”

Last Jan. 26, ICC’s Pre-trial Chamber I (Court) granted Prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan’s request to resume investigation in connection with the charge of crimes against humanity arising from the killings that happened during a specific period in Duterte’s war on drugs.

It is understandable that Remulla would be offended by the ICC’s decision and the reason that was given: it doesn’t believe the Philippine government is “undertaking relevant investigations that would warrant a deferral of the Court’s investigations on the basis of the complementarity principle.”

It means that the ICC believes that the Philippine government is “unable or unwilling” to prosecute those responsible for the killings, the estimate of which varies from the government’s number of 6,000 to the human rights groups’ more than 20,000.

In their insistence that the country’s judicial system is functioning and ICC’s probe is unwelcome, Remulla’s DOJ as well as during the term of Menardo Guevarra (now solicitor general) points to convictions of policemen involved in the 2017 killings of teenagers Kian de los Santos, Carl Arnaiz and Reynaldo de Guzman.

The ICC, however, is not easily impressed by the “deliberate focus of proceedings on low-level or marginal perpetrators.” It wants to make sure that national investigations or prosecutions focused “on those most responsible for the most serious crimes committed.”

The DOJ never investigated Duterte and the chief implementor of his bloody war-on-drugs, now Sen. Ronald Dela Rosa.

It is noted that Remulla added a conditionality in his public statement on not welcoming the ICC investigators: “… unless they make it clear that they will respect us in this regard.”

There is no reason for Remulla to be worried about it. Since the ICC does not have its own police force, it relies on the cooperation of States and international organizations to arrest and surrender the persons they are investigating.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has not said anything about the latest development from the ICC. During the election campaign, he said that he would only allow ICC probers to come in as tourists.

Many things have changed since then. He is now president, made possible by an alliance with Sarah Duterte, the former president’s daughter.

In the seven months of his presidency, he has been working hard in selling the country as a stable and dynamic investment area. He has impressed the international community as a leader far decent from his predecessor.

In his speech at the 77th United Nations General Assembly last year, he declared: “We need to reaffirm the wisdom of the founders of our United Nations. This means transcending our differences and committing to ending war, upholding justice, respecting human rights, and maintaining international peace and security.”

Surely, he won’t undo all those gains by not allowing the ICC to investigate what has been an extremely traumatic experience for tens and thousands of Filipinos.

Marcos’ PH roadshow and the ICC probe

If you listen closely to Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla’s strident reaction to the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to resume the investigation into the killings related to Duterte’s war on drugs, he didn’t completely rule out allowing the ICC to come into the country.

“Definitely I do not welcome this move of theirs and I will not welcome them in the Philippines unless they make it clear that they will respect us in this regard,” he said in a press conference.

He added: “I will not stand for any of these antics that will question our status as a sovereign country. We will not accept that.”

Remulla knows his international law. He knows that a state’s sovereignty – the supreme right of the state to command obedience within its territory – allows it to enter into treaties. We exercised our sovereign right when we signed the Rome Statute, which established the ICC, on Dec. 28, 2000 and ratified it by the Senate on Aug. 30, 2011. Our accession to the treaty took effect on Nov. 1, 2011.
We knew the provisions in the treaty.

The Philippines’ withdrawal from the ICC initiated by former president Rodrigo Duterte took effect on March 17, 2019.

We are sure Remulla is aware of Article 127, paragraph 2 of the Rome Statute which states that a country’s withdrawal “”shall not affect any cooperation with the Court in connection with criminal investigations and proceedings in relation to which the withdrawing State had a duty to cooperate and which were commenced prior to the date on which the withdrawal became effective, nor shall it prejudice in any way the continued consideration of any matter which was already under consideration by the Court prior to the date on which the withdrawal became effective.”

Last Jan. 26, ICC’s Pre-trial Chamber I (Court) granted Prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan’s request to resume investigation in connection with the charge of crimes against humanity arising from the killings that happened during a specific period in Duterte’s war on drugs.

It is understandable that Remulla would be offended by the ICC’s decision and the reason that was given: it doesn’t believe the Philippine government is “undertaking relevant investigations that would warrant a deferral of the Court’s investigations on the basis of the complementarity principle.”

It means that the ICC believes that the Philippine government is “unable or unwilling” to prosecute those responsible for the killings, the estimate of which varies from the government’s number of 6,000 to the human rights groups’ more than 20,000.

In their insistence that the country’s judicial system is functioning and ICC’s probe is unwelcome, Remulla’s DOJ as well as during the term of Menardo Guevarra (now solicitor general) points to convictions of policemen involved in the 2017 killings of teenagers Kian de los Santos, Carl Arnaiz and Reynaldo de Guzman.

The ICC, however, is not easily impressed by the “deliberate focus of proceedings on low-level or marginal perpetrators.” It wants to make sure that national investigations or prosecutions focused “on those most responsible for the most serious crimes committed.”

The DOJ never investigated Duterte and the chief implementor of his bloody war-on-drugs, now Sen. Ronald Dela Rosa.

It is noted that Remulla added a conditionality in his public statement on not welcoming the ICC investigators: “… unless they make it clear that they will respect us in this regard.”

There is no reason for Remulla to be worried about it. Since the ICC does not have its own police force, it relies on the cooperation of States and international organizations to arrest and surrender the persons they are investigating.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has not said anything about the latest development from the ICC. During the election campaign, he said that he would only allow ICC probers to come in as tourists.

Many things have changed since then. He is now president, made possible by an alliance with Sarah Duterte, the former president’s daughter.

In the seven months of his presidency, he has been working hard in selling the country as a stable and dynamic investment area. He has impressed the international community as a leader far decent from his predecessor.

In his speech at the 77th United Nations General Assembly last year, he declared: “We need to reaffirm the wisdom of the founders of our United Nations. This means transcending our differences and committing to ending war, upholding justice, respecting human rights, and maintaining international peace and security.”

Surely, he won’t undo all those gains by not allowing the ICC to investigate what has been an extremely traumatic experience for tens and thousands of Filipinos.

No mention of Marcos billions in Swiss bank accounts during 2023 WEF

WEF President Børge Brende interviews President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at the 2023 WEF in Davos, Switzerland.

The attendance of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the 2023 World Economic Forum (WEF) from Jan. 16 to 20 in Davos, Switzerland was the ultimate redemption for him and his family and a stinging rebuke to the Filipino people.

In answer to the question of WEF President Børge Brende on how has his seven-month presidency been, Marcos replied that it was “pretty much expected” because, he continued: “I have the advantage of having spent years watching my father being president so I had a very good idea of what entailed. Now, of course it’s different from a son watching his dad doing his job than you yourself doing that job. It’s like I’m in the same setting but playing a different role but ,at least, I know what needs to be done. I have a fair idea how it used to be done anyway and so I have models that I can follow, templates that I can follow.”

He was also asked if becoming president was part of the plan when the Marcos family was preparing for their return to the Philippines after they were driven out of power in what is dubbed as a “people power” revolution in February 1986.

Marcos said that when he was still in school, he didn’t want to go into politics. But after the family was allowed to come back in 1991 (Marcos Sr. died in Hawaii on Sept. 28, 1989), they realized that they can best defend themselves by going into politics. “Somebody had to enter politics and to be in the political arena so that at least not only (for) the legacy of my father but even our own survival required that somebody go into politics.”

He described the six years living in exile as a “very trying time.”

“Those were dark days for the family, and I dare say, even for the country,” he said.

Brende lapping up the Marcos narrative is appalling to Filipinos who have not forgotten the discovery of secret accounts holding some $800 million stashed in six Swiss banks from among the documents they left behind in Malacañang.

In a show of support to the Filipino people, the Swiss government did something unprecedented – froze the accounts identified by the Philippine government under then president Cory Aquino as belonging to Marcos and members of his family following attempts to withdraw traced to them while in exile in Hawaii. In justifying the “freeze,” the Swiss bankers association said that “banking secrecy is not absolute and does not protect criminals.”

The accounts frozen were only those identified by the Philippine government. It is believed that there were many more accounts that the Marcoses continued to have access to up to this day.

The Presidential Commission on Good Government, created in 1986 to recover the wealth stolen by the Marcoses from the Filipino people, has placed the amount to over P25 billion.

That’s why we are turned off by the snow job that happened in Davos last week even as we acknowledge the hard work that the president did to attract investments to the country.

But no matter how sophisticated, how extensive the propaganda machinery is, truth will find its way to surface.

“Marcos Lies,” a compilation of 31 essays by researchers from the University of the Philippines Third World Studies – Joel F. Ariate Jr., Miguel Paolo P. Reyes and Larah Vinda Del Mundo – discusses in detail the various lies that the Marcoses have parlayed to the public in pursuit of power and plunder. One of the stories (Ferdie and Meldy’s House of Love, Lies, and Loot) talked about the “other Mrs. Marcos” in what was supposed to be the ideal marriage of Ferdi and Imelda Marcos. There was also about the “Who is Your Hero” survey that angered Imelda Marcos.

Marcos was a master of secrecy. There’s an article on how Marcos was able to keep the declaration of Martial Law a secret, as well as the tricks he had to resort to in order to hide his illness.

The articles in the 1.2 kilogram-tome are supported by documents – news reports and diplomatic cables, transcript of congressional investigations and other materials, various fragments of data that, when put together, offer a clear view of the truth that the Marcoses have either hidden or twisted. Some of those articles have been published in VERA Files.

The request for reservation for a copy of “Marcos Lies” is quite long, indicating the interest by many to bring to light what really happened during the dictatorship – the darkest period in the history Philippine democracy.

When Marcos won the election last May, one of the foremost questions in the minds of many was, “How will the Edsa people power revolution be observed under his presidency?”

His reply to Brende is a hint. Let’s see in three weeks.

Marcos starts foreign trips with Indonesia and US visits in September

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said in a tweet he had a fruitful meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken about the importance of developing the agricultural sector last Aug. 6.

It is significant to note that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. chose Indonesia as his first entry to the world stage first week of September.

Indonesia is a member of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It is a tradition among Philippine presidents to visit a neighboring ASEAN country first before he or she steps to the international stage.

“The Indonesia trip, I think, will be on Sept. 5, “ a source from the DFA said.

After Indonesia, Marcos will be going to New York in the United States to attend the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly. Philippine Ambassador to the U. S. Jose Manuel Romualdez said Marcos is scheduled to address the assembly on Sept. 20.

Marcos’ Jakarta visit will further strengthen the 73-year bilateral relations between the two countries which have been allies in various common causes, notably the peace in Mindanao, and in the fight against terrorism.

The landmark 2014 Philippine-Indonesia maritime border agreement in the overlapping exclusive economic zones of the Mindanao and Celebes Seas in southern Philippines, which was signed after 20 years of negotiations, was hailed by the international community as model for resolving disputes peacefully, not with the use of military might.

During his New York visit, Marcos is expected to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden.

Although Biden has invited Marcos to Washington D.C. in a letter delivered to him by the American delegation to his June 30 inauguration, a DFA source said there is no meeting in the U.S. capital that is being worked out now.

Romualdez said a number of world leaders have requested for a meeting with Marcos while he is New York.

Being welcomed by no less than the U.S. president in American territory despite a standing $353-million contempt order is fraught with significant implications. First and foremost, it’s a psychological triumph for Marcos whose family has blamed the United States for abandoning them in their hour of need in February 1986.

It’s also a rebuke to his political enemies who have raised the contempt order and a possible arrest as signs of U.S. attitude toward his presidency.

China will be watching apprehensively Marcos’ meeting with Biden, which the U.S. officials see as a warming of relations between Washington and Manila after a tumultuous experience with Duterte.

Romualdez is the one coordinating Marcos visit to the U.N. because the designated permanent representative of the Philippines to the United Nations Antonio Manuel Lagdameo has not yet received his proper accreditation to the world organization.

Romualdez continues to be the ambassador to the United States, a position he has held since 2017 under the Duterte administration. A reliable source said he was the first choice to be the foreign secretary in the Marcos administration (The president is his nephew.) but China made known its opposition for him for that position because they (Chinese officials) see him as “pro-U.S.”

The source said former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, now representative of Pampanga’s second district, was also considered for the position of foreign secretary (as a peace offering to her for having been deprived of her much-desired position of speaker of the House of Representatives?) but she did not want any appointed position.

The same source said Arroyo was also considered as ambassador to the United States but it was seen as a move to ‘exile’ her where she would not be a threat to the Marcos presidency. She is known as the political mentor of Vice President Zara Duterte-Carpio.

The political undertows in the search of a foreign secretary led to an enlightened choice: Philippine permanent representative to the UN Enrique Manalo.

Manalo is not exactly new to the job of foreign secretary. In his four decades of foreign service career, he has held several important assignments including that of Foreign Affairs undersecretary for Policy and served as Acting Foreign Affairs Secretary from March 9 to May 17, 2017.

Marcos will have one the best minds to help him chart the country’s role in the global arena.

After the U.S trip, Marcos will link arms with 20 other world leaders when he attends the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Bangkok, Thailand on Nov. 18-19.