Boycott things made in China

A Philippine contribution to the world’s legal literature is the book Public International Law written by the late Senator Jovito Salonga and former Supreme Court Chief Justice Pedro Yap, a Cebuano. The first edition of this book was published in 1956. I have the 4th (1974) and the 5th (1992) editions in my small library along with the works of other known Filipino scholars on the subject as former Justice Edgardo Paras, Jorge Coquia in collaboration with Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Fr. Joaquin Bernas. Verily, this Salonga-Yap work is acknowledged as among the world’s most respected treatises on the subject. In one of our private conversations, Dr. Salonga told me that the book was actually his Doctor of Juridical Science (J.S.D.) thesis.

The charter of the United Nations Organization was signed on June 26, 1945, by fifty-one countries committed, according to the Internet, “to maintaining international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights.” The Salonga-Yap book though highlights as among the purposes of the UN “xxx to maintain international peace and security.”

I recall this particular book on International Law in connection with the plan of our national leadership to bring to the UN the belligerent acts of Communist China the latest of which took place when BRP Teresa Magbanua was encircled by about 10 structurally much bigger Chinese Coast Guard and rammed three times by these Chinese ships at Escoda Shoal, on August 31. Certainly, the incident happened within the portion of the West Philippine Sea which the Permanent International Arbitral Tribunal ruled in June 2016 to be within our Exclusive Economic Zone. This Philippine legal action whether before the UN General Assembly or again in the Arbitral Tribunal is long overdue and must be pursued vigorously and unrelentingly.

In my previous columns, I pointed out the fact that Communist China violated our sovereign territorial rights, invaded our country and illegally occupied some parts of our national territory. I cited Salonga-Yap that China had brought war to the Philippines because “war commences upon the commission of an act of force done animo belligerendi and certainly the Chinese’ seizing of our land as well as establishing military facilities there is war, the undeclared kind. I even described in specific details the piratical acts of the Chinese maritime assets as not unlike those committed by the notorious Chinese pirate Lim Ah Hong, of yore.

I am positive that we will win all “legal” battles against China. Sadly though I must admit we do not have the physical force to drive away the Chinese invaders from our internationally recognized exclusive economic zone. We will lose a military encounter even if, ironically, it is our exercise of legitimate self-defense.

In the face of this crisis, what can we, ordinary Filipinos, do? A part of the English version of our national anthem says: “Never shall invaders trample thy sacred shores.” It is about the best time to give meat to it. Since we cannot defeat China militarily, we must all unite in an economic war. Statistics show that we incur a deficit of $4.6 billion in our trade with Red China as of May. This trade deficit has been going on for 108 months. The yearly figures are about $24 billion Philippine imports from China but only $6.9 billion exports to China. In layman’s language we pay more money to buy Chinese goods but China spends much lesser amount of money to buy our products.

Let us make it our personal discipline NEVER to buy Chinese made goods. When, for example, we go to the malls to buy something, we must first check where the product was manufactured. If it is made in China, we must return it to the shelf and look for another thing produced somewhere else. When all Filipinos BOYCOTT THINGS MADE IN CHINA, we will not be helping them finance their military adventurism in the West Philippine Sea.