Kamala visit: A poor publicity stunt

UNITED States Vice President Kamala Harris is visiting Manila from November 20, 2022, for handshakes with President Bongbong Marcos and Vice President Sara Duterte, then heading to Puerto Princesa, Palawan on November 22, to go onboard BRP Teresa Magbanua (MRRV-9701) and be briefed about the Philippine Coast Guard’s maritime operations in Palawan, the Philippine province closest to the West Philippine Sea, which forms part of the South China Sea.

The obvious message of Harris’ trip is the relevance of the U.S. military presence in the Philippines to “defend” the country’s claims in the Philippine side of the SCS.

It is also the measure of how low this issue of the so-called “threat” to the claimed areas has sunk in the threat perception of Filipinos that the Americans and their gofer Amboys need such a stunt to refocus media and national attention on it.

The tensions created by the decade-long American, Amboys and mainstream media campaign using the “China threat” scare no longer work; China has shown and done too much goodwill and beneficial projects in cooperation President Duterte and now with President Bongbong Marcos over the past years and shown to the people how wrong those scare stories about China were all along. Filipinos are now going back to the real priorities: mere survival and economic recovery.

Surveys from July down to October by Pulse Asia established that “rising prices” and later, “inflation” are the top concerns among Filipinos. And among the so-called “allies” or “friends” of the Philippines, only China is truly addressing these concerns on all levels.

From 55-million doses of Covid vaccines to multi-billion bridges and trains, to provincial level aid from the Chinese embassy during disasters, the Filipino people see the visible and tangible good works of China literally every day.

China’s image has crossed to “Good China” since the middle of 2021 when PuBLicus Asia of Malou Tiquia in its survey found that 53 percent of Filipinos are open to considering China as a friend, while a survey this year by the Central European Institute of Asian Studies survey also show that up to 53 percent of Filipinos see China in a positive light already; 25 percent of Filipinos see China “in a very positive” light. In other words, there is already a shift in perception and reality in favor of China.

And China continues to pile up its good works. These days one can see China’s ambassador to the Philippines and the consulates in Cebu, Davao and Laoag on Facebook almost every day conducting distribution of bags of basic disaster survival stuffs in the wake of almost weekly typhoons hitting the country this rainy season.

Over and above all these are routine relief sorties of the Chinese consulates is our booming trade with China, highlighting the country’s “double win” in our present relationship.

The Philippines, as of November 9, 2022, consummated purchase deals worth $607.41-million with Chinese buyers at the latest Shanghai China International Import Expo (CIIE)– and this was just in four days of the five-day event.

The Philippine expo delegation consisting of 56 food companies and 6 non-food coconut companies is the largest number of exhibitors since the 2018 CITEM, Deputy Executive Director Ma. Lourdes D. Mediran reported through China Radio Int’l (CRI).

China is the Philippines’ top export destination again in 2022 generating almost $16-billion by August of 2022 outstripping our export to the U.S. by almost $7-billion.

Philippine exports to China have been growing by up to 9 percent annually since 2017.

The latest prospect for Philippine exporters is ‘Durian,’ after the Chinese market opened to avocados in recent years and after becoming the top banana supplier of China in the last 5 years.

It does not take a rocket scientist to understand that what the Philippine needs very badly now is economic resurgence after the two years of the pandemic crisis, and with the help of the only fast recovering major economy in the world, China, the Philippines can recover faster.

China’s 2022 third quarter GDP growth was 3.9 percent, amidst the negative growth rate of major Western economies.

In other words, our own economic growth is being “pulled” by China as its consumer demand increases.

The Philippines is also waiting for the eventual lifting of the Zero Covid policy in China which has already started.

Although it may take considerably more time to be totally lifted for outbound tourism, when it does happen, the surge of Chinese tourists in the Philippines can be expected, bringing much needed cash infusion in our national economy.

This is a badly needed, “shot in the arm,” for our post-pandemic economic recovery.

If Harris and the Filipino “Amboys” think their publicity stunt in Palawan can hype up frenzy again over the SCS sea disputes, the reality is that a growing number of Filipinos find such overacting passe, meaningless and irrelevant.

Filipinos want food on the table, jobs to go to and rice and sardines to bring home to their family.

They are no longer buying the U.S’ poor publicity stunt like the Harris visit.