It is getting to be increasingly pathetic, this our being slapped around by China and all we can do is whimper in protest, or make demands that we know deep in our hearts China will only shove back into our mouths. For a time there, the Philippines found a way to hit back. Surprisingly it seems to have dropped the tack.
We refer to that one glorious time when our president, standing up to the bullying, likened China to Hitler. Boy, did that get China's goat. Yet, livid with anger, all that Beijing could manage in return was to condemn the comparison, reduced for the first time into fighting with words.
That should have been the fight we can win, by riling China and shaming the giant on the global stage. For a while there, every Filipino stood behind the president, including those who hated his domestic politics. That time the fight was different. Nationalism was high and patriotism was ready for anything.
Insulting China is easy. It is the giant. It therefore brooks no effrontery. Any tiny peep from us completely unhinges it. Just look at the way it quickly resorted to name calling and inadvertently exposed its own weaknesses.
That is the way we should fight, instead of hewing close to processes that really do not work for countries that are small and weak enough to just ignore. Diplomacy only works for the giants, like China and the United States, because they have no choice, otherwise they simply annihilate each other.
It is time the Philippines opens its eyes to the reality that not even the US, which we fondly call our brother, will always hesitate to come to our aid if our enemy is somebody with the capability to hit it back with telling effect. Friendships may be strong, but self-preservation is even stronger.
And by the way, has anybody ever noticed that while the Philippines is not the only claimant to the disputed territories, the others (Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei) have suddenly grown deathly quiet as we go at it with China?
Clearly, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei are watching the entire proceedings with keen interest but are not about to join us in a fight against a common enemy. And you know why? Because they have their own interests as well, that's why. If China knocks us cold, that is one less claimant to the whole mess.
So you see, we are really all alone in this. We cannot depend on anyone else, least of all the United States, its seemingly reassuring rhetoric regardless. And since we are decided not to give in, then let us fight within our means and forget processes that are stacked against the weak. Let us spit and hiss.