MANILA, FEBRUARY 19, 2011 (STAR) By Ana Marie Pamintuan - The hiss from the snake pit for the past few months was that President Aquino had been ignoring his secretary of foreign affairs, hoping Alberto Romulo, like an old soldier, would just fade away.
When P-Noy publicly announced the other day that he might have to change his foreign affairs chief, Romulo reportedly took an indefinite leave. He is said to be going to the Commission on Audit, once current chairman Reynaldo Villar stops clinging to the post that was supposed to have been vacated last Feb. 2.
We've been running stories for some time now about former ambassador to Washington Albert del Rosario set to replace Romulo.
Perhaps Del Rosario will have P-Noy's ear and we will see an end to chaos in the administration's foreign policy and even in day-to-day business at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).
The incoming chief presidential troubleshooter, Mar Roxas, was initially reported to be advising P-Noy on foreign affairs. This is supposedly why Mar popped up in New York and sneaked into the annual gathering of the United Nations General Assembly when the President went there. But you can't make heads or tails of P-Noy's handling of recent matters involving China and other issues such as the travel advisories; his actions couldn't have been the result of advice from Mar.
Several foreign diplomats have told me that finding someone in charge of their respective concerns at the DFA has been a mess in recent weeks.
* * *
Right now we're baffled by the country's policy when it comes to China.
They're apples and oranges; Beijing made this clear as soon as President Aquino used the case of the Pinoy drug mules facing death in China as an alibi for the Philippines' boycott of the Nobel Peace Prize awarding ceremonies.
That boycott, made by a handful of countries upon the request of the Chinese (if we are to believe news reports from the Nobel gathering in Oslo), was seen in the Philippines as P-Noy's haphazard way of making up for the bungling of the hostage crisis in Rizal Park on Aug. 23 last year, and for his actions on the recommendations made by the committee he created to investigate the fiasco.
The offended party in that case was Hong Kong. And while its representative in the Philippines is the Chinese ambassador, Hong Kong residents are not known for being enamored with Beijing. Hong Kong was unmoved by the Philippine boycott of the Nobel rites – a snub that appalled human rights advocates. Hong Kong has not lifted its total travel ban to the Philippines, and there's an ongoing investigation into the deaths of the eight Hong Kong tourists during the hostage crisis.
Now, in what many quarters see as a continuation of P-Noy's appeasement of Beijing, Manila has deported 14 Taiwanese to China.
The Department of Justice, which has jurisdiction over the Bureau of Immigration, has consistently defended the deportation. The DOJ explained that the 14, who could face death for large-scale financial fraud victimizing Chinese, failed to present original and valid Taiwanese passports, so it wasn't as if the Philippines conferred new citizenship on Taiwanese nationals.
The Chinese, on the other hand, presented documents, the DOJ said, showing that the 14 were fugitives from Chinese justice and were on a so-called red list of the Interpol. So the BI hurriedly sent them off to the mainland on a special flight, leaving Taiwan's top diplomat in Manila virtually running after the plane in fury as it took off.
Fine… except Malacañang had said the deportation was in line with the country's one-China policy. So we did recognize that the 14 were Taiwanese, but they had to be sent to China because we don't recognize the Taiwanese passport if it's just a photocopy?
* * *
To be fair to P-Noy, Taiwan is a thorny issue all over the world, and foreign diplomats have different opinions about how Manila could have handled the issue.
One line of thinking is that the Aquino administration shouldn't have invoked the one-China policy, treating the issue instead as one of international law enforcement cooperation. The 14, after all, are no petty swindlers, if the charges against them are accurate.
Another line of thinking follows the DOJ's position, that China and Taiwan should settle the dispute between themselves. The counter-argument is that the two would never see eye to eye on the issue and the Philippines needed to make its own decision, based on its own national interest.
Several foreign diplomats believe that once the Philippines had decided on its course of action, a bit of diplomatic finesse, instead of that rush to deport, could have softened the blow to Taiwan.
It would be churlish of Taipei to retaliate against the 80,000 Filipino workers in Taiwan – it's one way of further losing its few remaining friends in the international community. But some Taiwanese employers could be less enthusiastic about hiring Filipino workers.
Now the deportation is being linked by P-Noy's critics to the case of the three drug mules facing death in China.
P-Noy set himself up for this one. In some countries, when they declare that no one is above the law, that the law applies to all, they mean it, unlike one country where… ouch…
Beijing, like Singapore during the city-state's rise to the top of almost all international indicators on prosperity and human development, is out to prove to the world that justice is blind and the rule of law prevails in China. There are over 30 Filipino drug mules facing capital punishment or a life term in China. Beijing could be worried that leniency toward the three convicts could set an unhealthy precedent.
But in its rise on the global stage, it might be useful for Beijing, if it wants to win hearts and minds, to occasionally show compassion on a case-to-case basis. The Arabs, with their tough laws, have relented and freed some Filipinos sentenced to death for murder, because of the circumstances of the crime.
Manila can't make such requests too often; many governments don't relish making exceptions to the coverage of their laws.
The best quid pro quo that the Philippines can offer is to show that decisive measures are being undertaken to stop the recruitment of Filipinos as drug mules, that drug syndicates are being broken up, that suspects are being arrested and punished.
P-Noy should also show that he is polishing his foreign policy.
In the meantime, we wait for Beijing to show some heart.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2011 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
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