THE recent news where the USS Connecticut (SSN-22, nuclear submarine) crashed into some “heavy object” in the South China Sea (SCS) that the US still refuses to identify after a week has passed. The accident damaged the nuke sub and injured 15 crewmen, and raised the specter of a possible nuclear leak from its reactor although the US has assured no such harm occurred.
Clear and present danger from all nuclear submarines from such nuke sub accidents truly exists and the next accident may be a nuclear fuel reactor explosion that would kill much of the SCS in its wake.
This is the danger that DFA Secretary Locsin has deliberately blinded the Filipino people to when he endorsed the AUKUS nuke sub deal between Australia, the UK and the US.
Locsin’s move is a betrayal of the Philippines’ official government position (a crusade since the ‘70s by the late Sen. Lorenzo Tañada) along with other ASEAN states for the denuclearization of the region. The ASEAN’s collective stand can be found under the SEA Nuclear-Weapons Free Zone (SEANWFZ), the ASEAN Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality Treaty (ZOPFAN) and its commitment under the salient provisions of the the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
In the thick of the current elections campaign cacophony. I feel strongly obliged to raise these issues again as the mudslinging we are witnessing is muddling the discourses.
This includes the VFA which opposition candidates have opened their arms to embrace but which violates ASEAN’s call for neutrality as well.
The startling truth on the other hand is China has actively promoted the international campaign for “disarmament to safeguard world peace and security.”
Locsin has openly been fawning on the U.S. since the visit of US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, spinning the visit of the White American’s concession to the BLM (Black Lives Movement) with an oafish appointment of the first black defense secretary. The fact is the US has not changed its stripes, it continues to be a nation build on weapons trade and war campaigns.
In fact, the US has been campaigning against the international Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) to maintain its nuclear blackmail power over the rest of the world. The Philippines signed the treaty in 2017 by then DFA secretary Alan Peter Cayetano. Locsin is throwing all these away while the country has been distracted with the COVID-19 crisis and now the election noise.
Locsin has not only been sycophantic and catering to the war preparations of the US in our region, in effect he has also started the slow process of demolition of the ASEAN alliance that has achieved balance and stability for the region to continue its peace and its path to prosperity in the Asian Century led by the Rise of China – particularly crucial for ASEAN’s post pandemic economic recovery.
Locsin has defied the ASEAN consensus against the AUKUS and its nuke sub deal by emboldening the AUKUS’ blatant escalation of the arms race in the region, inviting eventual nuclear calamity to the region, whittling away ASEAN centrality and squandering over a decade of effort at establishing the nuclear free status and neutrality of the region.
Locsin has been using outright lies to buttress his position on AUKUS and the US interference in the region which we uncovered from his RT (Russia Today) 20-minute ego-centric riffing interview.
He feigned ignorance of US bases surrounding China, claiming he only knows of two when the correct number is at least 200. He boosts the Hague ruling knowing full well that the UN has openly announced it has nothing to do with it.
Locsin insulted the 5,000-year civilization and a nation of 1.4-billion people by sneering on China the civilization-state and reducing his diplomatic role as a personal warm friend of Chinese Foreign Minister and State Counselor Wang Yi.
Locsin was a total embarrassment in that interview and show host Manila Chan’s amusement was evident in her squinting eyes.
Locsin forgets the history of the Filipino people in his toadying to the US, that the Chinese people and the rising 1896 Filipino revolutionaries were aiding each other in the fight against Western colonialism.
Mariano Ponce got in touch with China’s leading revolutionary, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, to purchase arms. Locsin cannot value this for the progress of his clan all depended on hanging on to the coattails of American R. McCoullough Dick.
President Rodrigo R. Duterte has chalked up countless foreign policy successes in his six-year term, only one failure will haunt the nation after he leaves office – the appointment of a traitor to Philippine, ASEAN and Asian aspirations—DFA secretary Teodoro Locsin.
We hope the next administration after the 2022 elections will improve on the Duterte achievement and perfect the practice of the Independent Foreign Policy once-and-for-all, ensure a neutral and nuclear free region and be a leader of the global nuke disarmament movement.
(Samahan si Ka Mentong Laurel at mga panauhin sa “Power Thinks” tuwing Miyerkules @6pm Live Global Talk News Radio (GTNR) sa Facebook at sa Talk News TV sa You Tube; at tuwing Linggo 8 to 10am sa RP1 738khz AM sa radyo.)