Another ‘True Blue Amboy’ as our foreign affairs secretary

LAST August 31, 2022, the Manila Bulletin published a news item that I only took notice off almost two months later; it’s a news item about our Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Enrique Manalo, who, incidentally, was confirmed in a single hearing of the Commission on Appointments (CA) despite his complete failure on being grilled by Congressman Rodante Marcoleta on the issue of the South China Sea and its ancillary arbitration ruling controversy.

The news item that is of my immediate concern in this column is the performance of Manalo at the Senate foreign relations committee hearing chaired by Senator “Imee” Marcos where she asked about our national defense strategy.

To the flabbergasted Senator Marcos, what Sec. Manalo submitted was a ‘Xeroxed’ (photocopy/reproduction) of the US Department of National Defense’s information sheet on America’s 2022 national defense strategy.

Imee Marcos was quoted to exclaim, “To my horror I was handed by your (telling Manalo) officials a paper from the US defense department fact sheet on its 2022 national defense strategy and other papers.

“I do not understand why this was handed to me and the Philippine strategy was not…” The MB report did not say or explain if there was a “Philippine defense strategy” paper at all. What it reported was Imee’s follow up question, “Why are we ‘xeroxing’ the defense strategy of other countries?”

Manalo said the incident was a “mistake” and promised that it would not happen again. However, there was still no clear-cut declaration that the Philippines does indeed have our own defense strategy to protect and secure the Republic and our territory.

If the DFA’s booboo was just a “mistake,” then where is that defense strategy our ours?

And how can such a mistake occur despite the DFA having 2,289 personnel to do research, communication and writing, being at the beck and call of the DFA secretary.

Or is the answer really that the DFA still hasn’t changed its role from the time our presidents were taking orders from the Americans to authorize use of the Philippines’ Mindanao airbases to base U.S. planes bombing Indonesia’s nationalist Sukarno forces during the ‘50s?

That the DFA can be so lackadaisical about the Philippines’ defense strategy to mistake and replace a U.S. defense strategy copy for it reflects sheer nonchalance about measures the country should take to protect its sovereignty and security.

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I am not surprised if this is so, even our defense officials are frequently caught by their own mouths being uncaring of Philippine security when it comes to the U.S. and its abuses and transgression of the country’s sovereignty.

In January of 2018 a U.S. warship sailed with impunity close to Panatag Shoal which is supposedly Philippine territory. When the media asked then defense chief Delfin Lorenzana about it he said, “We do not have a say on whatever the Americans do in the South China Sea.”

Because Manalo’s pedigree traces back to ex-Ambassador Rosario Manalo who expressly disputed the ruling of the Hague arbitration panel, we thought Enrique might have inherited the clear, independent and truly patriotic values of the mother and he would really be patriotic too.

But now we see this younger Manalo is really a true-blue Amboy after all. Enrique is married to an American which used to be taboo until rules were changed to liberalize this – to the detriment of the integrity of our career diplomatic corps.

We have been warned by retired DFA ambassadors that Enrique Manalo is an Amboy, which we couldn’t believe at first.

Now, there are too many indications that this claim is true. The speech the DFA wrote for PBBM for his UNGA appearance spoke of “rules-based order” which is the code word for U.S. rules and not of the U.N. International Rules ratified by its 193 member states.

And now, we have this “xeroxed” Philippine national defense strategy that is the U.S. defense strategy actually.

This news item about the Xeroxed Philippine defense strategy must have the whole diplomatic community in the Philippines laughing about our DFA, which is nothing new.

Among ASEAN countries the Philippine subservience to US foreign policy dictates is well-known. This subservience reached new heights under the late Noynoy Aquino’s administration with literally an American sitting as the Philippines’ top diplomat, Albert del Rosario.

Enrique Manalo again disillusioned Senator Imee Marcos on another subject at the Senate hearings, the Sabah issue.

The senator cited a newspaper piece in which Manalo was called “weakling” for his “silence” on the French court ruling ordering Malaysia to pay US$14.9 billion to the heirs of the Sulu Sultanate for breach of an international private lease agreement.

Earlier, in an August 9 privilege speech, Senator Robin Padilla criticized the government for its failure to assist the Sulu Sultanate.

It seems the DFA has a long way to go to be at par with the region’s diplomatic corps and meet the high expectations of the Filipino people.