Americans should get a Philippine visa
While Filipinos exert so much effort, pay a large sum of money, and spend a lot of time, waiting for a slot to be interviewed by the US embassy consular officers, for a chance to visit the US, it is very easy for American nationals to visit the Philippines. The Philippine government and we, the Filipino people, are used to welcoming them with open arms. The relationship between our country and the US is too lopsided and for too long. We have allowed ourselves to be treated as poor strangers by our so-called friends, despite being a treaty ally. By all appearances, this is highly unfair.
On the other hand, the US welcomes unconditionally the Japanese, their mortal enemies in the Second World War, while discriminating against us, who fought under the American flag. Many of the Filipino visa applicants are denied entry without any reason or explanation. Many who failed in gaining a US visa feel humiliated, saddened, and deeply disappointed by what seemed like a highly subjective and capricious denials. Many sons and daughters just want to make a visit to their old and sickly mothers and fathers, some of whom are veterans who served the US during the war.
The Philippine Constitution provides under the article on the declaration of fundamental principles that our country adopts the generally-accepted principle of international law as part of the law of the land. One of such principles is reciprocity by virtue of which a nation treats an ally in the same manner that it is being treated by the latter. The way the US is treating our citizens is the complete derogation of the generally-accepted principle of reciprocity. President Rody Duterte, therefore, is on the right track when he plans to give the Americans a dose of their own medicine.
US political leaders are quick to criticize our government on the issues of human rights and the so-called summary executions and extra-judicial killings. Without competent evidence, save some unsavory rumors and baseless allegations, many American politicians and bureaucrats have jumped to the conclusion that those vendetta killings were sponsored, abetted, or instigated by the government. And yet, these same critics are oblivious to the killings of blacks by the white-dominated US police.
What President Duterte is doing is only to assert our dignity as a nation and as a people. Nobody will treat us with contempt or with shabby condescension if we do not allow ourselves to be treated as inhabitants of a US colony or a vassal state. If we want respect as a sovereign country and as an independent people, then we should ask for reciprocal treatment, not dole-outs from a rich uncle or hand-me-downs from a wealthy cousin but as the only proper and right thing to do. Respect for ourselves is, after all, what matters most.
By the way, if the US refuses to sell the police firearms to us, then let us buy from Russia. That's the price we have to pay for an independent foreign policy.
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