What’s wrong with a profitable joint venture?

The brouhaha over Scarborough Shoal, much to my chagrin and at the risk of sounding unpatriotic, I can only view as puerile, comical, or pure braggadocio. The mere fact that the general area has been called “South China Sea,” and the tiny atoll “Scarborough,” since time immemorial should have served us notice long ago that some intruders were “trampling our sacred shores.”

For us to have allowed that great body of water (part of the Pacific Ocean) to be internationally known and dominantly referred to as “South China Sea” instead of “Luzon Sea” or “Dagat Luzon” is irrevocably damning. If we were really serious, we should’ve/could’ve filed a protest with the Dutch East India Company shortly after 1784 or, more recently, with the International Hydrographic Organization since 1953. The fact that we are making noise only now that we are evidently convinced about the presence of substantial amounts of oil or gas in the area makes our claim even less persuasive, if not suspect.

Of course, if nothing else, it may be that sounding the clarion call for our countrymen to defend our shores could work to summon up our rather tepid patriotic spirit and stir up inspiring nationalistic rhetoric. But let’s not get carried away. Talk to the man in the street and he’ll simply laugh at the idea of us taking on the erstwhile sleeping giant China. We can’t even handle the Abu Sayyaf, for goodness’ sake.

Civilized people fighting over some remote never-been-inhabited rocks are like children in the playground fighting over who gets all the marbles. Those shoals have been there for millions of years but our indigenous people knew better than to try to inhabit, much less lay claim to, any of them. It somehow reminds me of a rather quaint remark made by Michael J. “Crocodile” Dundee, who muttered in that Australian movie in the style of the late John Wayne:

“Well, you see, aborigines don’t own the land. They belong to it. It’s like their mother. See those rocks (Uluru or Ayers Rock)? Been standing there for 600 million years. Still be there when you and I are gone. So arguing over who owns them is like two fleas arguing over who owns the dog they live on.”

At my age (73), I tend to agree and, like Crocodile Dundee, to take a more pragmatic, if slightly philosophical, tack. C’mon, let’s stop kidding ourselves. This world has always been about big fish eating small fry. Big boys bullying 98-pound weaklings. Imperialist countries annexing potential colonies.

Lapu-lapu’s bolo was no match against Magellan’s Spanish armada. We were helpless against Admiral Dewey. Even the Americans had to surrender the Philippines to the Japanese at some point. Our lowly banca cannot even make it to Scarborough Shoal. Do we really want the Americans to come back, occupy our country again in the guise of helping us drive away those Chinese boats? Do we want a repeat of Vietnam, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan? Remember those photos of an American soldier being dragged along the streets of Mogadishu? It was enough to end the UN peacekeeping mission there, but not before spending more than $2 billion, which we could have used to build modern hospitals in every province and city in the Philippines.

Truth to tell, we have long ceded Divisoria and Binondo to the Chinese. Every business of any consequence in this country is owned by ethnic Chinese. During the Spanish colonial period, “Parian” near Intramuros was exclusively a Chinese enclave whence developed our own Chinatown, the oldest in the world. “Made in Japan” has now been replaced by “Made in China.” True, the Americans helped us drive out the Japanese, but at what cost? The carpet-bombing by American B-29s devastated much of Manila and the countryside, much worse than a couple of atomic bombs could do. It’s true the Russians never came. But now the Koreans are everywhere. Who says we did not invent the term “global village”? But is it any reason to panic? The history of civilization is one of constant migration and emigration.

Sometime in 1940, then Japanese Prime Minister Matsuoka Yôsuke announced what he called the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.” It was an incredibly ambitious plan to establish a new Japanese empire that would cover a great part of China, Hong Kong, Thailand, India, the Philippines, Taiwan, the East Indies, etc., stretching all the way to Hawaii—a kingdom that would shame even the great Roman Empire. The Japanese leaders spoke of “Asia for Asians,” the need to liberate Asian countries from Western imperialist powers, and economic co-prosperity for its member-nations.

In the end, it turned out to be just another form of oppressive imperialism in place of the Western type. After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nothing more was heard of the “Co-Prosperity Sphere.” So who’s afraid of another such scheme, this time courtesy of China?

In short, we have had and will continue to have all sorts of foreigners wishing to come to our shores, whether invited or uninvited. After all, it’s more fun in the Philippines! Indeed, we love foreigners so much we have devised all sorts of strategies to draw tourists and foreign investors. Anyone, including penniless back-packing globe-trotters, can come to the Philippines with no visa required. So, if China, now a recognized economic superpower, wants to do business in the country, in particular, exploring and developing those God-forsaken atolls for oil, or fishing where our little boats fear to tread, what’s wrong if we enter into a profitable and viable joint venture? As long as it’s not along the terms similar to the infamous ZTE deal of recent memory.

James D. Lansang has been in law practice for almost 50 years.