Fighting Several Fronts

By Erick San Juan

In the midst of the mid-term election fever and the tensions that went with it after the voting hours and during the canvassing of votes, our country was once again put in a very critical position with our neighboring countries. 

Most Filipinos were caught unaware of the dangers posted by the incident that happened last Thursday when the Philippine Coast Guard admittedly fired at one of the four Taiwanese fishing vessels that had strayed into our waters and killed a Taiwanese fisherman. 

I hate to say this but here we go again, people repeating history like what happened at the Luneta tragic hostage – taking some few years back which was peacefully settled due to the intervention (allegedly)of a Tsinoy businessman. Back then, several sanctions were about to be implemented but were halted by the said businessman.

The Taiwanese government reportedly has not forgotten the blunder of our immigration office where several Taiwanese were deported in China instead of Taiwan. The issue had a twist when Beijing turned over the Taiwanese to the Taipei government.

Basically, we fear for the thousands of Filipino workers in Taiwan and most probably in Hong Kong and China that might be deported due to the recent incident. And worst of all, the three China’s are up in arms against our government. The Taiwanese government has made a press conference to stop the hiring of Philippine workers. Can the PNoy administration handle such situation where thousands of our fellowmen will go home without any hope of finding a job here? That is the main reason why they took the risk of going out of the country because there are no jobs available here in the first place.

According to news reports, even though apologies were extended by Antonio Basilio, the Philippines’ de facto ambassador to Taiwan through their Foreign Minister David Lin but President Ma Ying-jeou insisted that Manila should offer a formal apology and compensation, apprehend the killer and launch talks on the fishing industry. From the words of his spokeswoman Lee Chia-fei, President Ma expressed his strong dissatisfaction over the Philippines’ lack of sufficient sincerity and its shifting attitude.

Why did the situation reach this crucial point? It seems that after three years in office of the present administration, we still lack the right persons with expertise in handling situations like these, as if nobody is minding the store (again?).

As an observer of events, I have been reminding our people especially in the government to be wary and always on the lookout for possible confluence of events which might leadto the invasion of our country by the Chinese without firing a single shot. I have written about this (@ericksanjuan.blogspot.com) and never get tired of warning our government to be always vigilant against the infiltration of our Chinoy and ethnic Chinese migrants by Chinese ‘businessmen’ from China, Hongkong and Taiwan. As I always say, fear China from within.
Although some pundits say that the recent ‘shooting’ incident is a good copy that will create a scenario for something else, translation – laying the predicate for a possible conflict in the region. But in the end, the question remains – who will benefit? Is there a brewing connivance of this G2 to invade our country by one of them and in the process the mighty one will allow such invasion as ‘payment’ and presto, all the country’s resources will be taken from us easily. 

With the turn of events, such scenario is possible if we will continue to dilly-dally (noynoying) as if there is no urgency to act on the matter at hand.
This time around, let us unite and support the right moves of our leaders, it is not a joke to fight several fronts especially if there is so much at stake. 

President Aquino should immediately convene the National Security Council to avert a possible confrontation and a designed crisis brewing.