LAST December 12, I woke up from a restful nap to a “comedy” of a digital news program with former US Air Force colonel cum ‘assertive transparency empresario,’ Raymond Powell, lecturing President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr., admonishing the little man in Malacañang thus: “Marcos should project strength, principles in West PH Sea issue.”
The ANC Digital program, Dateline Philippines, billed Powell as “the expert” but he is really an American dirty information warrior who questioned the decision of PBBM not to send Philippine Navy ships to what we call, West Philippine Sea, saying, “We are not at war.”
Since February 2023, Powell has been cattle-prodding the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and other elements of the Philippine security establishment to execute his “brilliant proposal,” ‘Project Myoushu’ that is anchored on the policy of “assertive transparency” and which seeks to bait the Chinese Coast Guard’s security responses in our disputed waters in the South China Sea.
The confrontational strategy seeks to inflict “reputational cost” to China and had partially succeeded when the CCG resorted to laser warning signals to blockade tactics and water cannoning PCG ships that Powell and the US paid media then broadcasted as “Chinese bullying.”
At the beck-and-call of Powell is PCG spokesman, Adm. Jay Tarriela, who is always ready to ‘second-the-motion’ every report and comment from Powell, and read the scripts or follow the playbook given to him by Project Myuoshu.
A year and ten months of assertive transparency has only served to solidify China’s assertion of sovereignty over the areas disputed with the Philippines and isolated us from our ASEAN partners, with nary a dent on China’s global reputation.
China has started asserting its sovereignty with its Navy ships after filing its Scarborough Shoal baseline documents with the United Nations.
Tarriela and the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs is raising a howl over this.
Powell and Tarriela has been trying to revive the hype over China’s claims in the past few months and on December 5, 2024, started to emote again over “China’s aggression on PCG ship near Bajo de Masinloc.”
And as expected, the incident was trumpeted by the oligarchy-controlled mainstream media as yes, another case of “Chinese bullying.”
Tarriela has been frequently criticized for shooting his mouth off on policy matters beyond his pay grade but this time he resorted to a slicker tact, insinuating through the media that “I’m not suggesting that we just deploy for the purpose of deploying warships… What I said is it’s up to the Commander in Chief (PBBM) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines to come up with a policy recommendation to have the reciprocity of deployment.”
For overstepping his authority and second-guessing PBBM, Tarriela, in any self-respecting government, would have been fired immediately.
To Tarriela and Powell’s dismay, PBBM’s policy pronouncement is that “We are not at war … We don’t need Navy warships. All we are doing is resupplying our fishermen, protecting our territorial rights….
“Again, it will be provocative and will be seen as an escalation. The Philippines does not escalate tensions. Quite the opposite, the Philippines always tried to bring down the level of tension,” he added.
And this apparently is the reason why Powell was quickly invited by ANC to “lecture” our President on what he “must” do.
The nerve of these Americans! And shame too on the impotence of our DFA and the rest of our officials, who did not protest Powell’s criticism bordering on insult to a sitting Philippine president.
The year 2024 is about to end and the initial phase of US Imperialism’ proxy war versus China and Asia is ending with a whimper.
However, its heavy-handed imposition on the Philippines to allow the Typhon missiles launchers and the proliferation of more US military bases continue to threaten us and the Asean region with Armageddon.
We will redouble our efforts to expunge these evils from our land and seas in 2025.