China incursions: What, me worry?

First Gentleman Mike Arroyo has had it and is contemplating suing newspapers that link him to rice smuggling. Just when President Gloria Macapagal was preparing for last week’s summit on smuggling, reports came out again that Arroyo was behind the illegal entry of rice in private seaports. "How can that be," he cries, "when I’ve requested Customs Commissioner Antonio Bernardo as far back as May 13 to arrest and prosecute persons using my name in their unlawful activity?" Bernardo in turn disseminated Arroyo’s letter to all Customs officers. Arroyo had written Deputy Commissioner Ray Allas a similar note to "spare no one who drops my name."

A related story from an opposition congressman has it that Arroyo is behind the needless importation of 400,000 metric tons of rice allegedly to raise money for the 2004 presidential run. Like the smuggling reports, the congressman cited no proof, just conjecture for the press to lap up. As for the volume, experts say the planned government import may not be enough if El Niño hits hard starting August, instead of the earlier predicted October 2002 to July 2003.

Still another report links National Food Authority chief Anthony Abad to Arroyo’s supposed imports. Yet, for the first time, the NFA has delegated to rice farmer’s cooperatives the task of importing. After all, the farmers would be the most severely hit by El Niño and the emergency imports would give them an alternative source of income. Why would farmers share their earnings with somebody else?

A tabloid earlier linked Arroyo to masiao too. He asked Interior Sec. Joey Lina, Justice Sec. Nani Perez, and then-PNP chief Leandro Mendoza in April to "arrest anybody who will use my name in illegal gambling."

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National Security Adviser Roilo Golez assures us there’s nothing to worry about China’s continuing incursions on our territorial waters. After all, he says in reaction to an AFP intelligence analysis, military buildup is "common" among superpowers.

The AFP had assessed "China’s expansionism in Southeast Asia" as "the greatest flashpoint for conflict in the region." It noted that while China was leading on its Southeast Asian neighbors about its sincere is finding a diplomatic solution to the conflicting claims over the oil-rich Spratlys, it also is fortifying some of the isles. At least three of those isles are claimed by the Philippines. The others on which it has built military helipads, wharfs, communications facilities and barracks are claimed by Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei. Philippine warplanes and ships had blasted buoys left behind by Chinese navy men in two other islands - signs of attempts at future occupation. Chinese vessels continue to occupy Scarborough Reef, just two hours by slow boat off Subic and 2,000 miles away from China’s southernmost island of Hainan.

Confrontation is imminent. Yet Golez tells us to relax. Why? Because we can’t do anything about it anyway. It’s like a libel lawyer advising the nervous reporter about the complainant’s P100-million damage suit: "You don’t have P100 million, right? So what’ve you got to lose?"

Our soldiers may be the fiercest fightingmen in the world. But ferocity alone is no match for China’s modern destroyers, submarines and fighter jets. AFP ships leak at sea, fighter planes crash during practice, and helicopters can’t even fly at night. We might as well just grin and bear the occupation of our land. After all, squatters invade private lots and owners can’t do anything about it, too.

For that matter China’s military expansion is not the only "invasion" we’re forced to accept. There’s also the economic muscling in of advanced countries. Australia continues to ban Philippine mangoes supposedly due to fruit flies, even if the equally finicky Japan and the US buy the same mangoes after exporters apply flourescent fumigation. RP has threatened to ban Australian dairy and meat products - to no avail. The US has agreed to retain its buying quota on Philippine garments, but only after wangling trade and business concessions in other areas. All the while, too, it increased China’s and Mexico’s quotas. Mostly European bankers want us to relax bank-secrecy laws at a time when we’re jittery about kidnappers with inside connections. They continue to blacklist us with finance and trade sanctions because of our toothless anti-money laundering law. Yet they blatantly ignore free-trade rules by banning our tuna exports in the name, they say, of helping their former colonies in Latin America and Africa. Spain is now the head of the European Union. Yet that hasn’t reminded them of our 350 years of being called insurrectos.

We can’t defend our territory because we don’t have weaponry. We don’t have weaponry because we don’t make enough revenues from trade and taxes. An alternative would be local-made war materiel from home-grown technology. But we don’t have enough scientists and engineers for that. too. The UNDP Human Development Report of 2001 ranked us 44th out of 72 countries in scientific and technological skills. We have only 157 engineers per one-million population, when Japan has 5,000 and Unesco’s minimum standard is 380. We have 3,500 patent applications per year, 95 percent of which are by foreign firms, when Korea has 92,000 and Japan has 400,000 mostly from their own nationals. Combined government and private spending for research and development is only 0.15 percent of GDP - less than P20 billion - when Asian neighbors average at two percent.

A trade war is also out of the question, what with disunity among our pols. New barangay officials have yet to begin their terms, and already, following the bad example set by our senators, number one kagawads are plotting to oust their chairmen-elect.

Yup, there’s no cause for alarm over Chinese incursions and trade bullying. Like Mad Magazine’s Alfred E. Neuman, let’s just wear that silly, toothless smile and say, "What me worry?"

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