SHOULD US GIVE MORE?

 

President Duterte and Senator Lacson, got into bit of word war, because the President told the Americans, that if they want to somewhat extend the VFA, that they should pay more. Senator Lacson, told the President to read the constitution, and the Philippines are not a country of extortionist. But then the President retorted, that the payment is not of money, but of armaments.  And the question is, should the US give more to it’s ally, the Philippines?

You may have heard many times in the past, from many US Presidents in the past, and officials that the Philippines is a strategic ally, of the United States. With the title strategic ally, I think the United States should give more.

I mean, it will be their problem too, if the Philippines remained too weak. We are the chink in the armour, along the strings of allies of United States in the region. Japan is strong, South Korea is strong, Taiwan is strong, Indonesia is strong,  Australia is strong. Only the Philippines is weak in the region. And we are a strategic ally.

And the opposition might, oppose or criticize the idea of Duterte asking more payment, from the United States. Especially the main opposition party, the Liberal Party. Let me remind you, the party of the Aquino, that Ninoy Aquino himself agrees, to these idea of Duterte. He even word it rentals. Watch his statement in this documentary  NINOY: The Heart and The Soul, on 1:13-23-1:14:58 about the US bases at the time. And I will quote some part of it.

“Rather than continue the situation of this nature. May we therefore ask the United States government that they pay us rentals for these bases, so that with these rentals, we can now update the position of our Armed Forces, we can have our own missile batteries, we can have our own missile frigates,we can have our own modern weaponry. Rather than go out with our hands out...” –Ninoy Aquino

So why US should give us more. First of all there is a threat now, unlike before. Before we are only a launching pad for Vietnam. Now there is a threat of the paper dragon. And the US knows that they are really a threat. And if they will not give more to the Philippines. They will have a problem in the West Pacific. China may invade, or force the Philippines to give Pacific positions to them. At least if we are strong, China may think twice. And as an ally, US should help, because it is on their interest too.

But why Duterte is asking for more armaments? It is because we want to have the capability to stand alone. Not to ultimately defeat China, we can’t . We only want to have the capabilty to bloody the nose, so that China might think twice, of confronting us. With our present military capabilities. It can only cause a scratch, and it might be an insignificant scratch.

We want to stand alone, because US has a history of abandoning allies, along  with its western friends. Look at Poland, The Allies, promise help, but left alone to face both Germany and the Soviet Union. Lost their freedom in 1939, and gain it only after 1990. That’s a 51 year freedom lost.

Look at Great Britain, Winston Churchill pleaded with all of his heart, to then US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, to join him in the war against Hitler’s Germany, after the defeat of France. He did not get it until Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, and Hitler declares war on the United States. That’s almost a year of abandonment.

Philippines in World War 2, was left alone by Americans to the Japanese. Although they came back, but it destroyed Manila, and left a lot of jeeps. And it had let the Japanese to do atrocities to Filipinos.

South Korea, Syngman Rhee asked for weapons, for him to wage war in the North. They declined, and US pullout of the South. The North Koreans attacked. The Chinese got involved. And the peninsula is still divided.

South Vietnam, although they start by supporting them. They abandoned them, when things go south.

The United States has this habit abandoning allies. They are unreliable, when it comes to a shooting war. So to that former justice, who is saying that the US will come in, if there will be an incident with China and the Philippines. You are very naive, to think that. You are not a student of history.

So its only right to ask US to give more. All they have given us in the past, are obsolete helicopters, tanks with no guns. C130 scrap of weaponry, Maybe its high time to give us, newer weapons. And I believe the government is willing to pay. We all know that it’s not cheap to manufacture such weapons. But I envy Iraq, in a way. It’s a former enemy, and a conquered state yet it has possesed US weaponry that the Philippines didn’t have. And we are called a strategic ally. Is it because we don’t have oil? Why is that a former enemy have that kind of weapons, but an ally was given scraps? Why is that? Your Excellency, Mr. President Joe Biden, why is that? Why is that?