Sa muling pagkikita – Chinese Ambassador Ma Keqing

That is of course the Filipino equivalent of Au Revoir in French or Till We Meet Again in English. Filipinos bade the Chinese Ambassador a warm good-bye and lustily applauded a video tape which showed the work that the Peace Ark Chinese hospital ship did when it anchored in Leyte.

Ma Keqing had a simple message  at a dinner in Fort Bonifacio by business leaders  â€”  Chinese and Filipinos are friends. That friendship has deep historical roots and has been there for more than a thousand years dating even before the West colonized both our countries.

Since 200 B.C, traders, migrants, and travelers from China came to the Philippines for commerce. The result was intermarriages. It explains why many Filipinos have Chinese ancestors and names that have Chinese origins but later these were Filipinized and in most cases family origins were forgotten. The most prominent Filipino with Chinese origins is the national hero, Jose Rizal. Filipinos with Chinese origins were bold adventurers. Most came from the South. I recommend further readings as chronicled by China’s Imperial Ambassadors, notably Chao Ju-kua (1225) and Wang Ta-yuan (1349).

So the departing ambassador was spot on for reminding us about this deep friendship. Lately, that friendship has come to the fore with China’s contribution and aid to the Philippines in the wake of the Yolanda tragedy in Samar and Leyte.

They sent China’s Peace Ark Hospital Ship, with 106 medical professionals and 35 tons of medical supplies on board which is considered as the first 10,000-ton-class hospital ship in the world. It did not come steaming in to Philippine waters but went through the clearing process. 

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Former Speaker Jose de Venecia spoke earlier on the same historical friendship with China and Asean particularly Indonesia and the earlier Malaya  from whom came  the early migrants that made the Philippine nation. He saw no reason why cooperation with each other could not be achieved despite differences on the South China Sea. He used the occasion to rally all countries including our Western friends to work hard to achieve a consensus on how to protect coastal populations. He called climate change as a threat  more  dangerous than the nuclear threat. I liked especially the incident he recalled regarding the Sultan of Sulu who paid a visit to the Chinese emperor in ancient times and died there. He was given a state funeral by the Chinese emperor to show their regard for him. 

Looking to the future, former Speaker JDV batted for cooperation and joint ventures echoing the Deng Shiaoping formula of putting aside the sovereignty problem. We should concentrate  ways for cooperation and mutual development.  He cited how the countries around the North Sea who were able to come to a solution on sovereignty problems of the sea. We could do the same but must be ready for its nuances and complexity. The main thrust of his message was how to achieve unity through constant dialogue, articulating both differences and common causes. recalling that this method had an ancient antecedent when Buddhists from China, Korea and Japan had  yearly conferences in Nara, Kyoto.

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A videotape was shown to the roomful of Filipinos in both business and media and members of the diplomatic corps who saw for the first time the activities of the Peace Ark Ship in Leyte and Samar. Former Foreign Secretary and Ambassador Delia Albert told me that she saw the videotape earlier and recommended that it be shown to media.  It included scenes with birth deliveries, blood transfusion, treating the wounded etc. of the victims of the typhoon.  The Chinese medical authorities of the Peace Ark worked in cooperation with Red Cross Philippines as well as with the Philippine military of local government officials. It was good to see Chinese doctors and nurses setting up medical tents in Abuyog, Leyte. These pictures of cooperation drove home the point that political differences should not come and need not come in the way of cooperation.

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It was possible to have political differences and yet be able to cooperate in other aspects of life as in economic and humanitarian concerns continues.  As Ambassador Ma Keqing said she did not think the tension between the Asian neighbors will  last long as both sides are keen on mending the “strained” relationship.

“United we win, divided we lose. So, upon leaving, I have the confidence that I would look forward to the day when our relations would [be back the normal track and will be even better again. I hope the day will come sooner than later,” Ma said.

Ma who was appointed in January 2012 has been here only for a short time but as she said, “she had had learned a lot from these two years.”

The challenge to her was how to deal with a host country with which your own country has a conflict of sovereignty. “It is very complex (since) it bears the national sentiments of both countries,” Ma said.

Almost on the first day of her term she was met with a renewed public and political interest on the overlapping claims over Spratlys Islands in the West Philippine Sea — a situation she dealt with locally by winning friends and reaching out. She traveled far and wide in several provinces to talk to Filipinos themselves, especially in the hinterland just as her ancestors had done in earlier times.

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This was the first time that China, a rapidly rising global power, deployed a naval vessel for a humanitarian mission and should be welcomed as an opportunity to change the Philippine strategy towards problems in the South China Sea. That was not in the hands of  President Aquino III alone.

Nor does this in  anyway preclude continuing cooperation and friendship with the US but we must develop our own foreign policy initiatives similar to what Vietnam has achieved.

Quite by coincidence, as Ambassador Ma Keqing bade goodbye, United States Secretary of State John Kerry was in Manila to reiterate the Obama administration’s pivot to Asia that he described as “a strategic rebalancing to the Asia-Pacific.”

Kerry in a speech to media condemned China’s declaration of airspace control over Japan-claimed territories in the East China Sea.

It shows yet again that if both countries have interests to protect so does the Philippines and it must do so by accepting both friendships to further its own interests. Philippine media should help in promoting the articulation of such a foreign policy and not allow itself to be used to fuel conflicts or take sides.

Maligayang Pasko and Manigong Bagong Taon.