Philippine Foreign Policies major concerns

August 16,2010, we discussed the major concerns of the Philippine Foreign Policies namely the regional arrangements and multilateral organizations, territorial rights: Spratly’s and the South China Sea, Direct Foreign Investements, Tourism, and the Overseas Filipinos. First is about the regional arrangements and the multilateral organizations, where we can promote our national interests through developmental diplomacy.

The second major concern is the territorial rights on Spratly’s and the South China Sea. Besides the Philippines, there are a lot of countries claiming Spratly’s islands and South China Sea as their territories which are China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan. As a member of ASEAN, the Philippines decided to settle the territorial disputes in a peaceful and friendly manner and without use of any force. I think that it is right to resolve this conflict through friendly and peaceful means, however I believe that their ways of resolving this is not effective because it has been so much years since this territorial dispute started, so I think, these countries must think of a more effective way on how to resolve this issue peacefully.

Next are the direct foreign investments. I can say that foreign direct investments are very important to our country because these foreign investments provide a lot of jobs to Filipino. China, USA, Japan, and countries from Europe and ASEAN are considered as major sources of our foreign direct investments, technology transfer, as well as trade.

Fourth is tourism. There are a lot of places in our country that can be enhanced to be very good tourists’ spots, some of these are Cebu, Bohol, Tagaytay, Palawan, Ilocos, Davao a long with these, the airline industry here in our country must be also improved. Filipinos, known as being hospitable plus the enhancement of these places and the airline industry will improve our tourism to encourage not only foreigners but also us Filipinos to visit our own finest places and that can be a very good help to our economy.

Lastly is the concern for the overseas Filipinos. Now, they are considered as modern day heroes for being the largest contributor to our economy because of their remittances. As a support for them, the government is committed to abolish one of the factors that the life of the OFW’s lives will be in danger that is terrorism, also the government continuously provides assistance to Filipinos overseas through the Department of Foreign Affairs and other government agencies such as the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.

Also, August 16, 2010 is our last day of meeting in PHIFOCY wherein I was surprised because time flies so fast, I just seem that the term had just started.

P-NOY on ASEAN

In P-NOY’s speech, the only thing that retained to my mind and the part that I really like is that P-NOY wants us Filipinos to be aware of our country being a member of ASEAN by translating the ASEAN Charter to Filipino and introducing the Charter in the schools here in the Philippines. Because Filipinos, especially the youth will be knowledgeable about ASEAN and through this, they can now critique and voice out their opinions about the bloc. Strengthening our bonds with other member states of ASEAN has a positive effect to our country especially with our economy through free trade agreements. I feel that President Noynoy's speech is somewhat indefinite regarding his plans for our country towards ASEAN. Still, I hope that his administration will be able to achieve the goal of ASEAN by 2015, a year before he leaves his of office.

Philippine Foreign Relations

Last August 9, 2010 was the 43^rd ASEAN Day. And we discussed the Philippines’ Foreign Relations, specifically with USA, Japan, China, ASEAN and the OIC.

First is our bilateral relation with USA which was strengthened because of the world wars that they fought together, because of the 3M Filipinos in the USA and because of the 9/11 attack and the known product of this relation is the Visiting Forces Agreement which was made because of the commitment of both countries to fight global terrorism. And we really have to strengthen our ties with US since we depend on them economically.

Next is the relation with China as the economic power with largest growing economy in the world. In terms of trade and tourism, the entry of China to WTO is an advantage to Philippines so that it can expand trade with China and attract Chinese to visit the Philippines.

Regarding Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement, it is also an agreement that is not equal like dumping of their said to be ‘non-toxic wastes’ to the Philippines in exchange for employing Filipinos to Japan. JPEPA must be reviewed and amended.

The Philippines supports the vision of for a more united and integrated ASEAN Community, working together towards economic growth, social progress, cultural development in the region. Also, the Philippines is working with Indonesia and Malaysia to stop the terrorist in the region.

With the Islamic Community, the Philippines is seeking to form a stronger relations with Organizations of Islamic Community which can resolve the dispute in Mindanao. Though it can be a solution with the Philippines’ problem regarding Mindanao, it will be hard to be part of OIC since the Philippines os dominated by Catholics.

Anti-VFA

I.

“The VFA is crucial to building strong Philippines and maintaining a stable Asia-Pacific.” I can say that this can be contradicted since USA can be a threat to peace in Asia-Pacific. As Miss said, USA can take advantage of our country by having us as a strategic position on surveillance to China. If this will happen, it may result to war and of course, Philippines will be implicated.

Second is that “US is our largest source of foreign military financing,” allocate a lot of money to strengthen security at our borders etc. But why are they giving all of these to us? It cannot be something out of kindness because we all know that a State do not have that. And from our discussion US need an agreement such as VFA because they need ports, training facilities and logistical bases and to make the Philippines a support base for US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. So it means that they are giving us those aids for their own benefit and not to ours and maybe for their other hidden agendas.

Third is “VFA facilitates RP-US cooperation eliminating the scourge of terrorism.” In the article, it was stated that Philippine forces was given by US logistic and intelligence assistance, and they were able to capture and kill some of the members of the Abu Sayyaf Group. If the VFA is really effective and if US is sincerely helping the Philippines on eliminating this small group of terrorists, they would have already pulverized the Abu Sayyaf Group in the span of 12 years since the VFA was signed on 1998.

Fourth is “the civic-humanitarian component of VFA-related exercises also form the backbone of the soft approach to combating terrorism and fosters inter-faith cooperation between Christian and Muslim communities” and it was clearly seen when US Senator Daniel Inouye visited the Philippines and seen Christians and Muslim Filipinos in Zamboanga cheering on US troops and waving the flags of both countries. Do they think that those Filipinos that waving their flags are aware of the VFA? For me, Filipinos are really appreciative to foreigners. That instance may seem that it was just a plain motorcade of a Pinoy celebrity. If they only know that the US is here to exploit our country and ‘help’ us for their own benefit, I don’t think they will be waving their US flags anymore.

Lastly, “The VFA directly benefits the Filipino people through it civil-military and humanitarian component .” The article stated that the US forces helped for the welfare of the Filipinos through medical missions, donations, constructions of building, etc. But we can remember that once there was a controversial story about a Filipina that was raped by an American soldier and we know that the Nicole rape case was neither the first nor the last.

I am not against with the country USA because if I say that I dislike the United States of America, I am a hypocrite because I love their products and I want to go to their country. It is just this agreement and on how they blind us Filipinos that they are here to help but then again they have their hidden agendas behind their aids to us that I really hate.

II.

I believe that the Visiting Forces Agreement does not affect me as an individual directly. But it can affect me by the rights that the agreement is giving to the US soldiers. It affects me as an individual that is a resident of the Philippines because those US soldiers have more privileges and immunities than us Filipinos. That is so unfair that someone from another country has more privileges than the resident of that country.

VFA

Last meeting was spent on discussing the Visiting Forces Agreement between the Philippines and the United States of America. First, we were given articles to read about the VFA and the article that I have received was pro-VFA. When Miss said that we will going to have a debate and defend for the article that we have. I already got disappointed because I know that we will not going to win the debate since most of us who received the article that is pro-VFA are against on the agreement being discussed. However in the end, I was very thankful because the debate did not push through. J

I have heard about VFA or the Balikatan exercises , even before I became a CDA student. Since I was younger, I only believe on what the television says, that the Balikatan exercises is a training of Filipino soldiers along with the American soldiers so that our soldiers will be taught of new strategies and skills in short, this agreement is made to help the Philippines. That is what I really believed about VFA until I came across it again now, being a CDA student. I have learned about what VFA really is last term on my CONDIP1 class and now in my PHIFOCY class. I am really against it, because we just let the USA to exploit our country and the fact that the agreement is only considered by them as an Executive Order which shows that they are not fully willing to be engaged to the agreement because having an agreement must be considered by both parties in a same level. And yes I agree that the only notable privilege that we have received from the VFA is allowing us to shop imported at military commissaries. Another thing that I have learned that made me really against is that the American soldiers have the privileges and immunities like what the diplomats have.

I really don’t believe in this agreement. That is why I am counting on to our President Nonoy to abolish this agreement or it can be amended that will result to a fair agreement and will cause benefits to us and not as burdens.

P-NOY and FVR

I can say that Fidel V. Ramos, our 12th President, is one of the great Presidents that our country had. That is why I chose his State of the Nation Address to compare and contrast with the SONA of our 15th President, Benigno Aquino, Jr.

In FVR's first SONA, he presented us some of the problems our country facing like in the SONA of P-NOY. Both of them did not focus much in our foreign policies though in the latter part of FVR's speech he addressed to some issues in the international arena like the end of Cold War. They mentioned about ensuring higher quality of education, privatizing public corporate sector that are better managed by the private enterprise, and fight against corruption.

There are differences in the way both presidents delivered their speech and the content of it. First is that P-NOY's SONA was more understandable than FVR's since it is in Filipino and I believe that a lot of Filipinos appreciated that especially those who are not proficient in English. Another is FVR addressed his intention of continuing and enhancing the works of the Cory Administration while P-NOY pointed out a lot of anomalies in the Arroyo Administration. FVR gave us more concrete solutions than P-NOY.

In the last State of the Nation Address of Fidel V. Ramos, he showed us his accomplishments and made to life what he said in his first SONA. We still do not know what will be the achievements of our current president but we are hoping that all the problems that he mentioned in his SONA will be abolished through his proposed solutions like what FVR did.

Former President Fidel V. Ramos had proved us his prowess, now it's time for our President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino to show the people of the Philippines what he has got and to lead us to progress that he is pertaining to as "tuwid na daan".

P-NOY SONA

July 26, 2010 was the first State of the Nation Address of President Noynoy Aquino. While I was still in my dorm, I tried to listen to what P-NOY said, after his speech I researched for it right away. I had a hard time searching for it then surprisingly I found his speech in his fan page in facebook! Now, I proved that facebook can help me in doing my homework. J

In class, we discussed about it. We were asked to cite parts of his speech. Some of us gave that the 70% of the Calamity Fund for this year was used already, MWSS and officials’ too much allowance and benefits, the rebellion of CPP/NPA/NDF, MILF, the tax evaders, issues about NAPOCOR and MRT, and the deficit problem. Miss labeled these as the problems seen by P-NOY from the former administration while his proposed solutions are the Fiscal Responsibility Bill, public-private partnership where the government doesn’t need to spend on anything, faster transactions in business registration, establishing the Truth Commission, the Whistle Blowers Bill and the Witness Protection Program.

We noticed that there are more problems than solutions and the president did not state anything directly about our foreign policies. Miss said that it is risky because maybe in the next six years, this administration will just focus on pointing out all the wrong doings of the former administration led by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. However, determining the problems first is a really good start for P-NOY for him to lead the change to our country for the better.

After the discussion, we formed groups of six which we must determine a proposed solution that can directly solve a problem stated by our president.

The change is not only in the hands of our president. We should help him in doing his job by abiding the laws and being responsible citizens.