As in Charles Dicken’s famous “A Tale of Two Cities, President Bongbong Marcos finds himself confronted by two realities. “ It is the best of times, it is the worst of times” Dickens began his narrative of the story. So is PBBM’s narrative.
On the one hand, PBBM is happy to tell the world that more and more Western powers have declared to join the Philippines in joints patrols in the West Philippine Sea to defend its claim awarded by the International Court Tribunal. There is safety in numbers.
On the other hand, as more and more Western countries aligned themselves with the Philippines vis-à-vis the claim, China becomes more agitated and assertive about its own claim in the WPS by virtue of its so-called nine-dash-line, regardless of its objective merit. With the antes being raised in the process, tension also rises.
Now PBBM is forced to admit that diplomacy is not working to ease the tension or calm the nerves on either side. Philippine senators had already suggested sending the Chinese ambassador home or withdrawing the Philippine ambassador from China as a sign of protest to the unbridled aggression by China.
(It is not unlikely that his political enemies at home will hugely capitalize on this admission and whip up some political actions, not for the sake of patriotism or nationalism but some personal agenda)
PBBM isn’t in favor of the recalling the Philippine ambassador or sending home his counterpart. While diplomacy is apparently not working in the ongoing sea row, the move is expected to worsen the situation. Besides, the Chinese and the Filipino envoy were working their best, or so it seems. Why fix it if it is not broken? At least, PBBM can always summon the envoy and drill sense to his head until he is blue in the face. At the end of the day, however, it is Xi Jin Ping who calls the shots.
The story is has been simple. Territories claims by the Philippines in the West Philippine Sea have been awarded and affirmed by the International Court Tribunal during the time of former President NoyNoy Aquino. China had disagreed and stubbornly insisted on his nine-dash line which the court had found no basis at all. China has since built military outposts and runways in the WPS, notwithstanding the ruling. It has also been harassing Philippine vessels, from government ships to fishermen’s boats out in the sea. A senator think a tit-for-tat, as in water cannoning, might work.
In light of the failure of diplomacy, PBBM wants a paradigm shift in dealing with China’s aggressive moves in the WPS and the rising tension caused by the increasing alliance of Western powers. It’s a Catch-22 for the Philippine government. If more powers join the alliance, China will blame the Philippines for being provocative. If the Philippines does the job alone in asserting its claim over the WPS, China will do the bullying acts, anyway.
PBBM has made himself clear from the get-go about the Philippine territorial claim in the WPS. He will not allow an inch to be taken away while he is the President. In contrast, his predecessor had virtually given up on the award won by the Philippines. The sea dispute is now a contest between an immovable force and irresistible object, a hard metaphor.
Whichever side the Philippines wants to be, it is clear that the Philippines through the efforts so far made by PBBM is in it to win the dispute. It’s only concern, as far as how PBBM enunciates it, is how to win in it peacefully and peaceable. The novel idea of a paradigm shift in this sense is very much desirable in this direction.
It’s not easy as it sounds, though, and is fraught and vague. Once upon a time, Galileo insisted on the Copernican theory that the earth moves around the sun and not the other way around, and that nearly cost his own life. Of course, there was politics in it,too. Some say, Galileo’s mistake was really calling a bishop, simplicio, which means simplistic, and that angered the religious.
In any case, a paradigm shift is a radical or revolutionary idea.. How PBBM will make it happen, with or without CHINA’S cooperation is part of the mystery .
Right now, the existing paradigm affecting the WPS is one of two hegemons trying to dominate one. Historians refer to it as the Thucydides Trap, a condition that is likely to trigger a war between to hegemons. China is currently unsettled by the increasing presence of the Americans in more bases spread all over the country. China is wary that such presence will stand in the way of China invading Taiwan in the future.
For all intents and purposes, PBBM is now a world’s statesman. In the mind of Martin Jacques, author of “ When China Rules the World”, as a China world order begins to take shape and the American order is eroding with remarkable speed, the idea of a paradigm shift should help ,in the words of late Henry Kissinger, in restraining the dogs of war. It should also involved the local Chinese populace, particularly the businessmen, in shaping that shift fit culture and history. PBBM must attempt a solid political unity behind the WPS claim.
In his time, his former dictator-father once echoed Plato’s argument that kings should be philosophers or philosophers should be king because they have a special knowledge to rule a republic successfully.
Who knows, PBBM might just surprise the world in light of the WPS conflict and his idea of a paradigm shift. He did a remarkable re-conquest of Malacanang ,after all.
