PEOPLE POWWOW: Imagine we were a Chinese territory

By HERBERT VEGO

ONE of the newspaper clippings I recently fished out of my reference folder is a translation of a commentary by He Jia, a lady anchor of China’s state TV, saying that “the Philippines is an inherent part of China’s territory over which China has unquestionable sovereignty.”

While she later on corrected herself by referring to the Spratly Islands only, what if she had indeed slipped her tongue in revealing China’s secret intention to seize the entire Philippines?

It is already a reality that Chinese ships are maneuvering unimpeded all over the South China Sea, and we Filipinos can only watch, thus tacitly exposing our defense incapability. So far, Uncle Sam has only paid lip service to his “iron-clad” protection of our country against Chinese invasion.

No wonder a growing number of Filipinos have taken to heart the adage “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” After all, they are tired of seeing our country run like hell by traditional politicians whose aim is to perpetuate themselves in power and milk the taxpayers dry.

These pessimists now harbor the notion that they have no future under the “trapos” who have proven President Manuel L. Quezon wrong in saying, “I prefer a government run like hell by the Filipinos than run like heaven by the Americans.” There is not even one ideal leader in the horizon who intends to run for President in 2016 because such a leader knows he would not win against goons, guns and gold.

We all know that the “number one” in the paid and false Pulse Asia and Social Weather Stations surveys does not even have moral ascendancy. In cahoots with the remnants of Garci in the Commission on Elections (Comelec), who could bend their “decision”?

To the question of why we would be better off under China, a Chinese national I have talked to tried to convince me. Let’s lend him an ear:

“China is on the way to becoming the world’s richest and most powerful country. Why don’t we become part of it sooner rather than later?

“There are no indications that the decades-long Mindanao conflict will come to an end. We have been misled into believing that the Muslim rebellion, fueled by funds from Islamic neighbors, could be stopped by peace treaties. Only China could stop them from converting this country into an Islamic state on the pretext of saving the Filipinos from modern-day ‘friars’ who help perpetuate corrupt politicians in office.

“China’s one-child policy would solve our overpopulation problem. The Reproductive Health Law would then grow teeth.

“Shorn of United States’ full support, the Philippine military has no chance against China’s war machine now on standby mode. The Philippines will then have no one to turn to.

“The Philippine economy today is already controlled by the Chinese who flood the local market with cheap products that scare the wits out of local entrepreneurs.  The majority of consumers being poor, they would naturally buy made-in-China products instead of the costlier local ones.

“China metes swift justice to law breakers. High ranking politicians are executed when found guilty of corruption. In the Philippines, the powerful and the moneyed buy ‘justice.’”

Well said, although I don’t agree with some of his points. But, yes, if Quezon were alive today, he might have changed his mind, just like the Hawaiians today.

In 1898 when the Newlands Resolution was passed annexing the Hawaiian Islands as part of America, the majority of native Hawaiians spoke against it. Those opposed to annexation have long since passed away but their descendants who make up today’s Hawaiians are all proud to be Americans.

The Philippines was number one economically in Southeast Asia when it gained independence from the United States in 1946. Since then, however, our neighboring countries have overtaken us – no thanks to Malacañang, Congress and the Supreme Court./PN