Challenging PH’s soft approach to China

The other day, an American reporter gave an update on the Trump-Russia link and asked: “Has the president of the United States become a threat to the security of the country?”

Having just heard the news about Chinese boats proliferating in Philippine waters, I feel compelled to paraphrase the question: “Has  the President of the Philippines become a threat to the security of the country?”

The soft approach of this administration toward repeated Chinese aggression can be challenged by George Jackson’s cautionary advice: “Patience has its limits; take it too far and it is cowardice.”

The indifference shown toward the expert counsel of Justice Antonio Carpio is deeply worrying.

As G.B. Shaw observed, “Political necessities sometimes turn out to be political  mistakes.”

Need politics be so personalized and divisive, whether the issues be international or local? For example, is it beyond the President’s reach to draw more deeply into his oft-declared love for the common good and find there the necessary restraint so that his speech may reflect the civility, the equity and the dignity that Filipinos deserve?

Is the nation to be held in thrall to self-indulgence?

VIRGINIA CALPOTURA, RSCJ, strvirginia@yahoo.com.ph