Once very critical of foreign travels, President Benigno Aquino III would have flown at least 45 times to 24 countries by the time he gives up the presidency on June 30.
And of these, six are trips to Japan. His first was to Yokohama to attend the 18th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Economic Leaders’ Meeting in 2010 where he was almost invisible in the company of world leaders.
His second, however, was a well-publicized trip to Tokyo on Aug. 4, 2011 to meet one-on-one Chairman Al Haj Murad Ibrahim of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
Very controversial and unprecedented, this trip—we thought then—could lead us into attaining lasting peace in Mindanao. Of course, this wouldn’t happen anymore during his term of office after his pet bill on the Basic Bangsamoro Law had been presumed killed in the current Congress.
By now, the BBL has been added to the list of casualties of the Mamasapano massacre together with the Special Action Force’s Fallen 44 commandos.
PNoy visited Japan again, and should have seen how two of its most devastated cities were able to quickly rise back to their feet by virtue of national determination, unity, and discipline.
The first—Ishinomaki in Myagi—was ravaged by a Magnitude 9 earthquake and the savage tsunami that it triggered on March 11, 2011 killing 3,097 and leaving approximately 2,770 persons unaccounted for and 29,000 homes lost.
What PNoy saw on Sept. 27 that same year was a city that had fully recovered less than a year after.
It is obvious, however, that he didn’t learn any lesson from that trip on how to deal with a similar typhoon and storm surge that hit Tacloban City on Nov. 8, 2013. That disaster killed 6,340 and left behind 1,061 missing persons.
Unlike Ishinomaki, Tacloban has remained hopelessly forsaken by its government more than two years after and despite Pope Francis’ celebration of holy mass in the city.
The second—Hiroshima— was razed to the ground by the world’s first atomic bomb that the United States dropped on it on Aug. 6, 1945 which directly killed approximately 80,000 people. The number eventually reached 166,000 because of injury and radiation.
Seventy years after, Hiroshima has become an internationally acclaimed City of Peace in accordance with its parliament’s vision which proclaimed the city as such in 1949.
PNoy visited Hiroshima on June 24, 2014 to address the “Consolidation for Peace for Mindanao” conference that was organized by the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the Research and Education for Peace Council of the Universiti Sains Malaysia.
Even much earlier, PNoy’s mother and grandfather had already shown a deep affinity with Japan, its emperor, and its people.
President Cory herself visited Japan three times, the first in November 1986 during the first year of her presidency to strengthen the ties between our two countries. She visited again in February 1989 to attend the necrological services for Emperor Hirohito and returned in December to attend Emperor Akihito’s enthronement ceremonies.
Most of us baby boomers and other younger generations do not know that PNoy’s grandfather—the first Benigno Simeon Aquino—was also an imminent politician who served as secretary of Agriculture and Commerce under President Manuel Quezon.
During World War II, he chose, however, to collaborate with the Japanese and even became the director-general of the pro-Japanese political sole party of state then—KALIBAPI—and was elected as speaker of the National Assembly from 1943 to 1944.
By December 1944, he and other Filipino officials had to fly to Japan and must have nearly suffered the horrors caused by the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When the Japanese surrendered, they were all arrested and imprisoned by the Americans at the Sugamo Prison in Tokyo and returned to Manila in 1947 to face charges of treason.
All of these trips must have contributed to the generosity of the Japanese in providing us soft loans, grants, and technical assistance.
It cannot be denied, however, that Japan had also used its official development assistance to promote its exports.
For instance, when the Japanese first assisted us in the construction of Pan-Philippine Highway from Laoag to Zamboanga City, many accused them of developing the market for their cars in the country.
Thus, we still refer sometimes to our national highway as the “Philippines-Japan Friendship Highway.”
To show the goodwill of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko when they visited recently our country, JICA re-publicized its P98.5-billion financing of the North-South Commuter Railway project in Luzon.
When completed, the NSCR would have 900 kilometers of railway linking La Union to Albay, a 58-km line from Calamba to Batangas City, and a 117-km line from Legazpi to Matnog.
We really don’t mind that the initial Japanese soft loan could only finance the construction of the Manila-Bulacan line, which would only start in 2017 and be completed in 2020.
Neither do we mind that we won’t be getting Japan’s bullet train “shinkansen” it first built way, way back in 1963.
All we want is to experience once more those pleasant—and maybe, slow—train rides that we used to enjoy in traveling to and from Bicol in our youth.
Unfortunately, this won’t happen soon yet.
