Prepare for China

Prepare for China: Part I

I have Chinese blood. More than 200 years ago, a Chinaman married a native from Iloilo City. From that union, a whole clan was born – that that clan keeps growing and growing. I am not against the Chinese. How can I be when we have shared blood?

But I cannot say the same thing of the Chinese government. I have no blood ties with China the government, only with one Chinese native who came here to become Filipino by choice and be an ancestor to new Filipinos by blood. My clan, though, from that first union, has become predominantly Filipino by intermarriage with more Filipino natives than Chinese over the last two centuries.

I know, too, of many other families, of many other clans, who have absorbed Chinese blood among their members throughout history. After all, Chinese presence in the Philippines precedes Spain, Japan and America. If we are to trace the percentage of families with some Chinese blood in them, we might possibly be referring to the majority of Filipinos.

Patriotism and citizenship, though, may be blood-oriented but not blood-dependent.  By loyalty and my citizenship is Filipino, totally. My citizenship may have been affected by my birthplace and the citizenship of my parents, but my love of country and my loyalty to the Philippines are purely by choice, my choice.

From what I have experienced and observed all my life, most Filipinos are like me. As such, we have no doubt about our identity and about our loyalty. That is the way it should be if one is Filipino, even if one has Chinese blood, has American blood, has Spanish blood mixed with his or her Filipino blood. Or, even without Filipino blood, but by the laws of the Philippines and by the loyalty to this country, one can be a true Filipino as well.

In the last few years, a brewing conflict with China has disturbed us. It is not the first time, of course, as China had once openly chosen to support an internal rebellion in the Philippines. China chose to side with a communist-inspired domestic revolution against the Philippine government. While claiming to be about social justice, that rebellion under a communist ideology has failed to attract the marginalized, also representing the majority of Filipinos, for whom the revolution was supposed to be for.

The occupation of the United States was a sad period of our history, not because the American rule had not brought benefits, but because America chose to use force to impose its will on the Filipino people. Whatever good may have come out of that occupation, it will not erase the bitterness of betrayal, of brutal conquest, of teaching democracy through the ugliest undemocratic manner.
Today, though, 68 years after independence in 1946, Filipinos have a choice. We can choose to forgive America, Spain and Japan for their terrible transgression against Filipinos. We can also choose to forgive China for meddling in an internal conflict that has caused so much death, destruction, and division among the Filipino people.

If we are to utilize the many facets of our ties with China and America, China has a clear edge. We are fellow Asians. By blood, we have more fusion than any other race in the world. And economically, Chinese interests through their cheaper products and Chinese-blooded taipans control the Philippines. If there is competition between China and America for world dominance, China should use our shared history and blood to woo back the Filipino people if the American influence has become stronger.
Former Senator Leticia Shahani has recently written that the Filipino people should use a multi-dimensional approach in engaging China, that we should use our assets – food, language, intermarriage, the rise of taipans – to remind the Chinese (I assume she meant the Chinese government) of our long tradition of friendship, peace and tolerance between our peoples.

Our challenge, though, is not because we do not agree with Senator Shahani, but because we do. And despite all these, including tolerating the collusion between the thieves and plunderers serving in government here and the corruptors serving in the Chinese government and its corporations, China chooses to claim what is ours and takes a bullying role to grab Philippine territory.

Beyond cordoning Scarborough Shoal and preventing Filipino fishermen from partaking of the fruits of their patrimony, and doing this unilaterally from an arrogant military superiority, China has its eyes set on many other pearls of the Philippines. It is not only using belligerent language, it is also flexing its muscles. That is why it is called “bullying.”

In defense of its own sovereignty and all territory within the parameters that nations of the world observe, the Philippines is ultimately vulnerable to superior manpower volume and superior firepower. As a quick reaction, psychologically and militarily, the Philippines embraces the American forces in the region, hoping that these will be a strong buffer against more Chinese land-grabbing. Or possibly even invasion.

Dependence, whether to China or to America, is not to the interest of Filipinos. But Filipinos will take America anytime because their sentiments still prefer America today. China has not reached out except in three ways so far ever since independence in 1946. China supported the communist rebellion in the Philippines, exacerbating a domestic problem.  Chinese government owned or controlled corporations got involved with the thieves and plunderers of our government. Lastly, China claims territories we know are ours. How, then, can we recover the lost relationship of history?
What is left for us to do?

We have to prepare ourselves for any eventuality. We have to prepare our minds, our hearts, and our bodies. Conflict can escalate in a day from verbal to physical, and we have to prepare to fight and die, in the thousands, in the hundreds of thousands, in the millions.

Because we are Filipinos. Because we remember our ancestors who fought and died, against Spain, against America, against Japan. Because we wish no ill will against any nation but must not run away against ill will directed towards us. Because we are the children of the motherland, the only land in this planet that is meant for Filipinos.

Prepare for China: Part II

It may simply be a game for China. After all, who is the Philippines to fight back? Pushing us away from the sea, water-hosing our fishermen in Scarborough Shoal, blocking our supply ships at Second Thomas Shoal (Ayuningin Reef), China ups the ante in its bullying of the Philippines. And it seems that most Filipinos are not aware how close we are to war.

It is not unusual for war to begin with a single shot. The American Civil War started with a single shot from a mortar. History also says that a Serbian assassin shot an Austrian Archduke Ferdinand  and triggered World War I. It is not so much that shots were fired, but that they were fired when there was already tension between countries.

And there is tension now. I cannot speak of what is happening inside China but I can definitely speak about our own country. If the tension is not yet palpable, it is only because the Philippine government has deliberately held back from rousing public anger. The news of China’s bullying has been in the news but government has not pounced on the aggression of China to whip up an emotional storm among Filipinos. I can understand why our government chooses moderation, but the game is not up only to us and belongs more to the aggressor.

I do not want to be an alarmist, but I am alarmed. The state of unpreparedness, or naiveté, of the Filipino people will send them to absolute shock if a shot is fired, either by Filipino or Chinese soldiers. Panic is not the best stage from where we can mount our defense. Patriotism is better, and anger instead of fear.
 It might be advisable if government begins to roll out an information campaign via tri-media. Social media has been ahead of the game, so far, and will naturally pick up what government will publicly share. The tone of social media will be much more belligerent than the sobriety that government will expectedly display, but that is par for the course. Without some amount of heat, it will be hard to get through both ignorance and apathy.

While government through tri-media and the private sector through social media drive the information campaign on the bullying of China and the eventual need for Filipinos to defend its territory, the AFP Reserve Command can be placed on a higher state of readiness. Reaching out to the reservists can by itself be a strong information campaign because their families and their neighborhoods will get to know that something is brewing.

I can only assume that the reservists will respond with willing bravery to take on tasks that will prepare them for confronting China. It is not as though they will be sent to invade a country with so many times the number of soldiers and war equipment. But they can take positions in contested islands to signify that Filipinos are willing to defend our territory.

War against China will mean a massacre of Filipino soldiers. If China gets crazy mad, it can bomb and kill even Filipino civilians. After all, China can just declare it is now a 10 dash line to include not only Philippine waters and isolated islands but also Philippine mainlands. Who is to stop them from doing what a bully does from superior military strength anyway? Definitely, not the Philippines. The world of nations can, but not if Filipinos roll over and submit. Syria has lost over 100,000 of its own people to violent death and no one has intervened to physically stop the carnage. Soon, maybe, but not yet.

Filipinos must be the first defenders, the first to give up life and limb, before other nations will intervene. The first courage must be ours, the first sacrifice must be ours – no matter how many lives that takes. And we are not prepared to die in bravery, not when most Filipinos do not even realize how close they are to having to do so. That is why we must prepare, and prepare with a clear plan of action. Public awareness is first on the list. Activating the reservist comes next.

This early, too, it may be time to send a quiet message to Chinoys. Chinoys are Filipinos, just as Fil-Ams are Americans. Chinoys may have mixed emotions about going against China, and I cannot blame them for that. Sympathy for one’s original motherland is not wrong. But conflict and war between one’s country, and the Philippines is a Chinoy’s country, and one’s original motherland, China in this case, will force all Chinoys to unequivocally proclaim their absolute loyalty to the Philippines.
This is most unfortunate for Chinoys, but China’s bullying of the Philippines is even more unfortunate for all Filipinos. Many Filipinos have become citizens of many other countries. At least four million of them are citizens of the United States. Should conflict and war loom large between the Philippines and the United States, then Fil-Ams will find themselves forced to show their loyalty to their country of citizenship.

Chinoys have another situation. They control the wealth of the Philippines as gleaned from the latest list of the richest persons in the Philippines. As such, public attention and expectation will be focused on them and their actuation as conflict deepens due to China’s bullying. Loyalty is serious business, and becomes deadly so in times of war.

The United States? I cannot speak for this nation nor would I wish to speculate on what the United States would do in the face of our delicate position today. Will America risk all to defend the Philippines against a nation closest to having military parity with it? Will America be willing to commit its forces in the Pacific when it is in a quandary what to do to help the Ukraine against Russia?

Filipinos for the Philippines, the first path, and maybe the only path. Acceptance of this is the first preparation.

source:  Inquirer's Glimpses by Jose Ma. Montelibano