By May 1 (Labor Day in the Philippines), the Chief Executive will be received by the POTUS (President of the United States) at the White House.
The DFA has not been drumbeating it as a state visit but Pinoys will likely ask why is it only now that PBBM was “invited” to Washington?
Every head of state is always elated when the POTUS rolls out the red carpet for his visitors.
This means that the visitor is a VIP who must be treated above the regular protocol and that a private audience always follows.
PBBM has been ignored for sometime by Joe Biden. In fact, even former PRRD was given the cold shoulder by Washington especially in the last two years of his incumbency in Malacanang.
I think Washington “summoned” PBBM in relation to the EDCA relative to the Taiwan issue and the growing enmity between the US and China viz a vis the South China Sea.
Because the US needs to re-establish its military prominence and might in the Indo-Pacific, bigwigs like Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have made physical stops recently in Manila as a way of stressing this point to the Philippine government.
So, PBBM is going to Washington for the principal reason that Biden wants to placate him for accommodating the US position sans unnecessary fanfare.
For this “hospitable Pinoy gesture,” Biden should have reciprocal “gifts” that we hope do not approximate the alms given to beggars.
In the past, the Philippines has been at the losing end of US endowments, be it in tariff and trade agreements and more so in military assistance.
Manila was the city worst destroyed during the Second World War and yet it was Japan whom the US wholly helped to get back on its feet.
Where are we today compared to the country of the rising sun?
Pinoys should be scared that the minute some Chinese idiot presses the button, the Philippines is already a target where all the EDCA sites are located.
By now, Pinoys know that the increasing American military presence in the Philippines commits the country to a war not of its own making.
Maybe some of us are just feeling freaky but the EDCA is not a joke anymore.
Sen. Imee Marcos, chair of the senate foreign relations committee, recently grilled DND chief Carlito
Galvez in a panel probing the EDCA situation.
Galvez stammered and could not find the right words to fully explain what EDCA is all about, especially the new sites chosen to pre-position US military equipment and other stuff said to be geared to address natural disasters and calamities..
Sen. Imee retorted: “I am not satisfied” in relation to all the kilometric sentences Galvez uttered during the forum.
Biden and his Washington rah-rah boys will attempt to “drown” PBBM with “amenities” like a kid expecting a huge life-like Teddy bear as a great Christmas present from his “ninong.”
Aside from a “royal” treatment, PBBM’s visit might also be exploited by Biden’s political operators to help improve the former’s very low survey ratings as the run up to the 2024 presidential election season begins to heat up.
The US embarassing withdrawal from Afghanistan (and the Taliban take-over of billions of dollars worth of military equipment left behind in Kabul and elsewhere) is a major issue the comebacking ex-president Donald Trump is employing to stress the failed Biden administration and its mismanagement of American foreign policy.
Personally, I think the US is looking at the Philippines and the EDCA as a great opportunity to save face and re-affirm to its allies around the world that it remains still the number one superpower in this planet.
In this circumstance, PBBM could find himself caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.
Nowhere to turn to, nowhere to pivot even if he has expressed the country’s foreign policy that it is a “friend to all and enemy to none.”
PBBM cannot say that to XI Jin Ping anymore, even in a friendly whisper.
Look at how intrepid and shameless the Chinese ambassador to the Philippines has become, warning us about the fate of OFWs in Taiwan if something goes awry.
PBBM should send him back to Beijing where he naturally belongs. (Email feedback to fredlumba@yahoo.com.) GOD BLESS THE PHILIPPINES!
