The Philippine government has been accused of “double standard” in dealing with the American and Chinese intrusions in the Tubbataha Reefs (“Gov’t accused of double standard in US, Sino intrusions,” Inquirer, 4/11/13). Militant groups themselves were quick to point out that when the USS Guardian wrought havoc on those reefs, our government tiptoed around the US Embassy, meekly seeking some explanation as to why the US warship was there. When it was the turn of a Chinese vessel to run aground in that area, the Philippine Coast Guard pounced on it and immediately put its crew under arrest.
In the first place, the US warship was a US government instrumentality. Under international protocol, it was a government-to-government business. Such contretemps required high-level diplomacy; hence, the mandatory involvement of our Department of Foreign Affairs and the US Department of State. In the case of the Chinese intruder, it was just another private vessel suspected of poaching in our seas. There’s a whale of a difference there.
What to us is a laughable display of duplicity is the speed with which militants gather and mill around the US Embassy to burn the US flag and their deafening silence when the country aggressing and transgressing our laws is communist China. Were they ever heard from when China mocked us by sending battleships near and around the Spratly Islands?
—STEPHEN L. MONSANTO,
Monsanto Law Office,
Loyola Heights, Quezon City,
lexsquare.firm@gmail.com