EDITORIAL - Losing at something we don’t need to win

It’s final; the Philippines won’t have a seat on the non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) after Manila failed to get two-thirds of the 190 votes available from the chamber last Thursday.

The Philippine was beaten by Kyrgyzstan which secured 142 votes in the fourth round of voting, with the Philippines managing only 49.

While China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States are permanent members of the UNSC, non-permanent members have two-year terms.

As mentioned in a report, a place in the UNSC would have given Manila authority to vote on the UN's policies "for the establishment of a system to regulate armaments," as well as to either "call on members to apply economic sanctions and other measures not involving the use of force to prevent or stop aggression" or to "take military action against an aggressor."

Let’s congratulate Kyrgyzstan and move on because this is really nothing to cry over. We lost at something we don’t really need to win right now.

In a previous editorial we said that while a non-permanent seat on the UNSC would be good in terms of international optics, such positions are only for countries that cannot afford to be sidelined from the more pressing issues at home.

And, boy, do we have issues that demand our immediate attention. Added to our previously-mentioned food insecurity, worsening education, widespread corruption, uncontrolled population growth, runaway fuel prices, and never-ending natural disasters, we now have to deal with a looming climate crisis that threatens our food supply and the daily drama happening in our Legislative Branch that can threaten the very foundations of our democracy.

We also reiterate our previous view that for us to be able to "call on members to apply economic sanctions and other measures not involving the use of force to prevent or stop aggression" or to "take military action against an aggressor", we ourselves must have the economic and military influence to whip members into line --or at least significantly contribute to an effort to do so -- if they refuse to toe the line.

And right now, we are no such country.

Losing our bid for a non-permanent seat in the council was a blessing in disguise. Now let’s focus our attention on more pressing issues that need fixing.