The Chinese leadership must be laughing at us. Instead of being circumspect, our Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Perfecto Yasay Jr., is giving comfort to the enemy with his disjointed statement on Manila’s case at international arbitration court in The Hague. The case contests Beijing’s claim of 90 percent of the South China Sea.
Why did he have to say the country would share seabed resources with China four days before The Hague court is to issue its ruling on the regional maritime dispute? Our partners in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations must be just as perplexed on our ambivalent stand on the issue. All but three—Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, known Chinese clients—are all counting on Manila winning its case so that Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei, too can file their own separate cases against China.
But now with Yasay showing Manila’s hand in a case that is yet to be decided, the three other Asean members with overlapping claims might just go for bilateral talks with China. This is precisely what Beijing wants. Manila prefers multi-lateral negotiations to include other Asean claimants.
Many legal observers and the world are expecting a Philippine victory. Yasay’s statement on the issue, though, could have pushed the matter in a different direction. In basketball or soccer, a scapegoat scores a basket or a goal in the opponent’s court just when the home team is leading by a point in the game’s dying seconds.
Yasay, whether he’s speaking on his own or acting on President Rodrigo Duterte’s instructions, squandered everything Manila was fighting for in asserting our sovereignty over the West Philippine Sea, which China included in its sweeping nine-dash line. It may be too serious an allegation but Yasay’s unguarded statement on the South China Sea issue borders on treason. Whose interest is he serving, anyway—the country’s or China’s?
The word from the Palace is that it’s now only President Duterte who would speak on the South China Sea issue.
Yasay over the weekend said the Philippines was willing to share with China fishing grounds off Scarborough Shoal and to explore, jointly, marine resources under the South China Sea even if Manila wins its case in The Hague. It’s unbelievable that Yasay would say this ahead of the court’s ruling. If Manila wins, should it not negotiate from a position of strength instead of prematurely announcing concessions to China?
Probably feeling the backlash of his “sharing seabed resources with China,” Yasay the next day clarified that in his interview with Agence France Presse, he meant after “dissecting the implications” of a joint exploration.
After criticism from former Foreign Secretary Roberto R. Romulo who said Yasay is unfit for the SFA post, and an equally damning one from current Philippine Ambassador to Washington Jose Cuisia saying Yasay does not have the integrity for the job, Yasay and his supporters are claiming there’s a concerted demolition job against Duterte’s designated SFA.
Something has to be made clear to Yasay. He wanted the job and accepted his appointment. He must therefore expect opposition when he goes up at the bicameral Commission on Appointments for the vetting process.
Romulo and Cuisia are respected personalities in the diplomatic field who speak their own minds. It is doubtful whether they would lend their names to “ a demolition job” perceived by Yasay. Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio who’s part of the Philippine legal panel to The Hague court has also expressed his doubts about where Yasay’s loyalty lies.
But this is still more damaging to Yasay is if his end game is to replace Cuisia as Philippine ambassador to Washington. A Fil-Am lawyer has confidential information about Yasay’s unpaid tax and mortgage liens dating back to the 1990s. Considering the number of years that lapsed without settling his US tax obligations, the interest and penalties accrued must be staggering by now. We will not dwell on the tax delinquency and will wait for Yasay himself to clear matters up. This column will welcome his explanation and side of the story.
Still, we can imagine how embarrassing it would be for Yasay and the country. Certainly, the US government before giving its agrement or accepting him as Philippine envoy to Washington, will do due diligence on the tax delinquency. Agrement (pronounced agremon in French)) is the diplomatic practice of the sending state to wait for the receiving state’s approval of the ambassador. It is normally given, except on a few occasions when the receiving state can reject the chief of mission being sent to head an embassy because of some derogatory information.
Yasay’s appointment as foreign secretary speaks volumes about Duterte’s selection and nomination procedure. The people around Mr. Duterte have to have a better vetting process to screen appointments given to the President. Those considered for Cabinet positions, particularly, must be screened thoroughly and not automatically submitted just because the nominee is a close friend or classmate at San Beda College. A repetition of former President Noynoy Aquino’s selection style, which gave priority to his Ateneo classmates and friends of the family, resulted in the failure to get the best and brightest minds.
For this negligence, Aquino and his Budget Secretary Florencio Abad are now facing a slew of charges arising from their use of funds from the Disbursement Acceleration Program, which has been declared illegal by the Supreme Court.
