In case you have not noticed it yet, strategically-located Philippines is starting to smell like roses to the United States now that the world’s leading superpower feels threatened by China.
Not so subtle overtures are being made to beef up American military presence in the region, with the Philippines likely to play a crucial role in that direction. We have suddenly become a very important place to visit by US VIPs carrying all sorts of enticements.
But the Philippines should not drop its panties too readily like a cheap whore. It is time we assert our parity with other nations, including the United States with whom we have a long-standing but largely unequal relationship.
Consider this: We are now being bombarded with offers that are, overtly or covertly, military in nature and whose long-term ends serve American security interests more than they do ours.
Yet, at the same time that American senators suddenly found the Philippines important enough to visit, right in the very halls of the US Congress legislators are already considering a proposed law that will cause major disruptions in the call center industry in the Philippines.
The call center industry in the Philippines employs hundreds of thousands of young Filipinos who otherwise would be out in the streets protesting against poverty and the lack of jobs. It is a multi-billion-peso industry that is helping plug leaks in our ailing economy.
If America passes the bill, many US companies upon which the Philippine BPO industry relies may be forced to pack up and go, leaving us suddenly with hundreds of thousands of young people with nowhere to go.
America cannot court us for its long-term security interests while at the same time depriving us of our own long-term economic stability concerns. And while we can never enjoy a strong bargaining position against America, the least we can do is not make fools of ourselves.
America is trying to play sneaky with us, tying its security issues with our own concerns over the Spratlys. But the fact is, the US will never go to war for us over those disputed islets.
The best the United States can do is try a little deterrence, which is to their own interests anyway. But plunge into another shooting war over a territorial claim that does not even involve just the Philippines but other countries as well? Nah.
The last thing the US wants is an armed conflict with China. And it knows the surest way to get there is to meddle in any conflict in the Spratlys over which China is also a claimant and a most assertive one at that.
The US knows an uneasy status is as good as it can get out of the situation. We should also see it the same way. Let us not be mesmerized by a few military doleouts that will in no way guarantee our claims nor tilt the balance of power in our favor.
Frankly, all that we have in the Spratlys is our claim. And while it is only right and honorable not to give it up, let us be practical enough to realize that far more achievable goals require more attention by our foreign policy makers than an untenable, if patriotic, claim.
If America desperately needs the Philippines to satisfy its long-term security interests in the region, then let us make America pay for what it is really worth. We can make the proposed US law on call centers a bargaining chip, and use it for leverage.
What does Barack Obama want — save a few jobs that Americans themselves do not want just so he can have the tax-based rhetoric voters love to hear from a reelectionist president, or put America at a strategic military disadvantage with far-ranging security and economic implications?
To be sure, Obama and his strategists know what the real score is. The real question is if our own President Noynoy Aquino knows as well, and whether he is up to the challenge of playing hardball with the Americans for the sake of Filipinos.