China foremost in Aquino’s mind

President Aquino says he is preoccupied with the Philippines’ territorial dispute with China, a national security concern that will definitely fester beyond his term. FILE PHOTO

President Aquino is preoccupied with the Philippines’ territorial dispute with China, a national security concern that will definitely fester beyond his term.

At a recent informal dinner with Inquirer editors and reporters, Aquino was asked what was foremost in his mind with a little over two years left to him in office.

“China,” the President quickly replied.

Told that allied countries were behind the Philippines as it stands up to China’s aggressive territorial claim in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), Aquino said in Filipino: “Precisely, they are behind us. Which means we, the ones in front, are still the ones who will deal with this issue.”

In an interview with The New York Times on Tuesday, Aquino called for other nations to do more to support the Philippines in its maritime dispute with China.

He compared the Philippine situation with the fate of the Sudetenland—the northern, southwestern and western areas of Czechoslovakia inhabited mostly by Germans—which fell into the hands of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany in 1938 after the Western nations failed to back the Czech government.

China’s official Xinhua news agency blasted Aquino’s comments late on Wednesday, saying the President’s “senseless” comparison of his “northern neighbor to Nazi Germany exposed his true color as an amateurish politician who was ignorant both of history and of reality.”

No need to explain

On Thursday, Malacañang said there was “no compelling reason” for the President to explain the Nazi Germany comparison.

“Any newspaper, local or foreign, is free to give their own comments, but we will just remain focused on achieving what is best for our national interest,” Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma told reporters.

“We will not be swayed or distracted by a commentary that is not fully aligned with our own position,” he said.

Should complaints be sent through diplomatic channels, the Department of Foreign Affairs would handle them, Coloma added.

A security analyst told the Inquirer on Thursday that Aquino’s admission that the dispute with China preoccupied him reflected “a concern that

affected national interest.”

“It is a statement with foresight… It is a strategic perspective. Much of what he says reflects a major economic and security concern,” Jose Antonio Custodio, an analyst, military historian and professor, said in a phone interview.

Custodio said President Aquino was obviously thinking forward, aware that the dispute with China could affect the administration that would succeed his, even future generations.

If nothing is done to solve the dispute now, dealing with it could be worse for succeeding administrations, Custodio said.

Ties with China

In dealing with the territorial dispute, Custodio said, the Philippine government has to take into consideration its economic relations with China, the second-largest economy in the world where thousands of Filipino migrant workers are employed.

It also must consider its diplomatic relations with China and even sociocultural ties, especially with a population that has an economic elite with Chinese lineage, he said.

The President himself has Chinese ancestors and he traces his roots back to a southern Fujian village.

In his state visit to China in 2011, Aquino visited the village of Hongjian where his ancestors lived. His mother, the late President Corazon Aquino, did the same during her state visit in 1988.

The Philippines took its territorial dispute with China in the West Philippine Sea to the United Nations in January last year for arbitration.

Aquino told the Inquirer that he was hopeful that the UN arbitral tribunal’s ruling would be favorable to the Philippines and that it would finally resolve the dispute with China.

The President noted that the Philippines’ memorial, or statement of facts in the government’s petition against China, would be submitted on March 30, before the tribunal makes a ruling.

Strong case

Custodio said that from a legal standpoint, the Philippines had a strong case.

“China’s position is questionable because they are claiming the entire sea,” Custodio said.

But he cautioned against what China could do if it lost the case, especially now that China was on the path to regaining its stature as the region’s “Middle Kingdom.”

Custodio said that for the Chinese, “there is a price” for challenging them in the international arena like what the Philippines is doing.

“They will make life interesting for us. To use that Chinese saying, life will be interesting for the Philippines,” Custodio said.—With reports from Christian V. Esguerra and wires

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