What ‘foreign policy’ are we talking about?

SINCE assuming office in 2022, the one glaring absence of this administration is its lack of a genuine foreign policy that could have given the Philippines a modicum of respect in the international community that is necessary to give a better life for all Filipinos.

Of course, Pres. Marcos Jr. insisted that we have an “independent” foreign policy where we are a “friend to all” and “enemy to no one” and that such policy is anchored in our own “national interest.”

Well, two years thence and it is very clear to most people, here and abroad, that his policy statement is not workable at best and at worse, a farce.

Even a blind man can sense that for whatever it is worth, our foreign policy merely follows the policy decisions of dear Uncle Sam.

To claim, for example, that as a manifestation of our “sovereignty,” we will not cede “one inch” of our territory to “anyone” flies in the face of the fact that PBBM has virtually ceded swaths of our territories to the US military, Australia, and whomever the Pentagon wants to invite to place their troops here.

What is this? It is okay for Western Imperialism to occupy our lands and place their troops here for as long as it is not the Chinese? Or the Russians? That we can still see ourselves as “sovereign” for as long as it is the West and its Asian minions like Japan, South Korea or Taiwan who have troops here?

Even in the raging and conscience-disturbing developments in the Middle East, we are reduced to voicing our concern over the “catastrophic humanitarian situation” in Gaza (and now Lebanon) but would rather abstain or go along with the United States when the voting comes to condemn Israel and the US for their continuing, massive terrorism operations against the Palestinians.

The loyal lackeys that we are like the Brits, we would rather condemn Hamas or Iran, Hezbollah, Russia and even North Korea, than condemn the real instigators of violence—Israel in the Middle East and US Imperialism everywhere else.

Opportunities are opening up everywhere and because we chose not to have a genuine foreign policy anchored on what is really good for the Filipinos and our country, we are being left behind.

As the Americans wished it, we practically abandoned the opportunities presented by China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), an initiative that is now daily transforming the lives of millions of poor people, especially in Africa and even in the ASEAN like Myanmar, Indonesia, Malaysia and even Vietnam.

As the Americans wished it too, the administration decided to shun all the opportunities we can have under the BRI in favor of American and Western “business opportunities” that fall short of actual investment over the simple fact that both the US and Europe are bankrupt economies now.

Indeed, their ‘Ukraine Project’ is expected to destroy the entire European economy, with Germany, Europe’s “economic giant,” fast transforming into a midget. I foresee that 2 more years of war with Russia, (economic) war with China and military interventions in the Middle East and Africa while abandoning their focus in bettering their economies, Europe would be an economic backwater that, like us, are complete vassals of the United States.

Clearly too, the BRICS is the economic platform of the future but because the administration cannot see pass the pronouncements and diktats of the State Department and the Pentagon, it would rather condemn the country and our people to endless poverty and earn the disrespect of most in the international community than take the bold step of studying what BRICS can offer us.

And yes, the requirements for BRICS membership is quite plain and simple: any country wishing to join must have an independent policy that is backed by action and not mere words, the way the administration is practicing it.

Translation? We remain an American puppet state and therefore, we cannot join BRICS.

Sad.