Betraying Homonhon

The news barely registered among a public coping with the extraordinary threat of a pandemic, but there was a moment a couple of weeks ago when it seemed that the Philippines had finally found the gumption to stand up to China.

On April 8, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) issued a strong statement on the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat near the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea by the Chinese coast guard last April 2, expressing “deep concern” about the incident.

The DFA went on to recall a similar incident in June 2019 when a Chinese ship rammed and sank a Philippine fishing boat in Recto Bank, within the Philippine exclusive economic zone. The 22 Filipino fishermen left in the waters were later rescued by Vietnamese fishers, and for that, said the DFA, “We have not stopped and will not stop thanking Vietnam. It is with that in mind that we issue this statement of solidarity.’’

It was an unequivocal, if rare, statement, by the Philippine government against China. Could it be? Was the Duterte administration finally regaining composure and a measure of self-respect in what has become its lopsided, obsequious relationship with Beijing?

Alas, the DFA’s gallant stand would prove to be a temporary blip in the radar, a tiny rip in the Duterte-China space-time continuum, as it were. On April 14, in another of his late-night addresses to the nation on the COVID-19 crisis, the President again remembered to thank Xi Jinping, basking in the Chinese leader’s supposed gratitude to him for helping “counter the malign that they were suffering at early at this stage,” referring to the criticisms hurled at the authoritarian state for its handling of the contagion that originated in the Chinese heartland.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) was apparently attuned to the continuing embrace of China at the top, because, even with a pandemic threatening the lives and safety of Filipinos—specifically the residents of Homonhon Island in Guiuan, Eastern Samar — the department recently still managed to arrive at a decision that favored Chinese interests over those of Homonhon residents.

On April 11, the DENR’s Mines and Geosciences Bureau in Region 8 reversed a March 31 suspension order on the entry of a Chinese-manned vessel loading chromite ore from a mining site operated by Techiron Resources Inc., despite the general community quarantine imposed in the province.

The vessel, MV VW Peace, with 13 Chinese and four Myanmar nationals, was to load 7,000 metric tons of chromite ore worth P61 million that would be shipped to — where else — China. Curiously, the vessel reportedly docked for several days in Davao City before heading for Homonhon, where its appearance on April 4 prompted the island’s residents and village chiefs to jump to action.

The island’s eight barangay chiefs passed a resolution blocking the entry of the vessel, and Eastern Samar Gov. Ben Evardone — who issued a March 22 order banning the entry of vessels and nonresidents to the province to protect locals from the virus — appealed to Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu not to allow the ship to dock and load ore, invoking the need to safeguard the health and safety of his constituents.

Borongan Bishop Crispin Varquez added his voice to the appeal, while Fr. Christian Ofilan of the St. John the Baptist Parish in Homonhon said the vessel’s operations had caused anxiety among the 8,000 residents of the fishing community.

The province’s strong protest yielded victory when Cimatu ordered the MGB in Region 8 to temporarily suspend the loading operations.

But the halt was short-lived. The vessel resumed loading on April 14, with MGB Director Wilfredo Moncano justifying the sudden reversal, in an interview with independent media outfit FYT, as “maybe to reduce the economic damage’’ of the pandemic. “Economic damage” to whom, when Homonhon and the provincial government itself are both against this undertaking? Moncano later told GMA News that export-related industries are exempted from the lockdown.

Residents and local officials have rightly decried the DENR decision as irresponsible. “Our province has done all possible measures to protect our people from this disease and yet this mining operation has given Estehanons anxiety and fear over the possibility that all our efforts to prevent this disease from entering our province will go down the drain,’’ Evardone said in a letter to Cimatu.

Why the special exemption given to this foreign vessel servicing China over the objections of an entire province? Under this dispensation, “China’’ seems to be the magic password to flout rules and protocols that apply to everyone else. As Ofilan put it, giving voice to the sense of betrayal felt by Homonhon residents: “For this government, it is China’s interests first, second our rights.’’