Stop waving olive branch and stand up to China’s bullying

One commendably innovative move of President Aquino was his recent departure from his stereotype anticorruption-centered “tuwid na daan” thrust. We are referring to the government’s acquisition of 12 fighter jets for the Philippine Air Force during his trip to South Korea early in December 2014.

He said that the jets will be used only for swift surveillance purposes, but it was clear the real purpose for their purchase was to achieve for the country some semblance of armed clout to enforce the nation’s maritime rights. The purchase of the jets comes at a time of increasing tension over territories in the South China Sea which China claims to own almost in its entirety.

On the other hand, the sale of the fighter jets to the Philippines may be seen as an expression of South Korean’s gratitude to the Filipino people. On June 25, 1950, North Korean Forces, reinforced by a belligerent Red China (the same nation aggressively bullying the Philippines at present), invaded South Korea. The Philippines, in response to the United Nation’s Security Council call for member-countries to help South Korea repel the North Koreans, sent its 10th Battalion Combat Team on Sept. 15, 1950.

Seven months later, on the rugged Korean terrains and through a bitter winter, and from the bloodiest encounters, the battalion emerged triumphant. No less than Syngman Rhee, the president of the Republic of Korea at the time, summed up the South Korean’s gratitude to the Filipino soldiers by saying: “There is no doubt about the bravery and fighting skill of the Filipino soldier. The 31 million South Koreans are very grateful.”

Yes, by tradition, our government and people are committed to peaceful dealings with other nations. This nonbelligerent stance is enshrined in our Constitution, specifically in the Declaration of Principles and State Policies: The Philippines renounces war. It adheres to international laws which all other nations follow; it embraces a policy of peace, equality, justice, freedom, cooperation and friendship with all nations. But as Lord Bertrand Russell, a Nobel Prize winner in 1950, said, “If peace cannot be maintained with honor, it is no longer peace.”

Our government cannot stand idly by while being bullied by a saber-rattling, war-mongering neighbor who insulted the Philippines by calling it a US “paranoid junior ally,” while unilaterally asserting “undisputed sovereignty” over the South China Sea to the surprise of governments in the region. And yet this “neighbor” rejects the Philippines’ bid for international arbitration, saying that the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague has no jurisdiction over the territorial dispute and that the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which the Philippines is earnestly invoking, cannot be used to decide the dispute.

I think it is about time for Juan dela Cruz to stop its penchant for waving the olive branch and show some muscle-flexing in the face of a jingoistic Asian bully!

—ROGELIO C. BARCELONA,

Himlayan Road,

Barangay Pasong Tamo,

Quezon City