Randy David
By emotional disposition, Filipinos tend to harbor a deep suspicion of China. This is confirmed by a succession of public opinion surveys showing the Filipino public’s huge distrust for this Asian hegemon. It is an attitude that far exceeds any negative sentiment we may have against Spain, the United States or Japan — countries that actually invaded the Philippines and subjugated our people.
Read on...
ROSARIO GARCELLANO: “What did Piñol tell the fishermen?”
https://opinion.inquirer.net/122126/what-did-pinol-tell-the-fishermen
SOLITA MONSOD: “Lessons to learn from the HK Chinese”
https://opinion.inquirer.net/122122/lessons-to-learn-from-the-hk-chinese
BABE ROMUALDEZ:: “Maraming salamat, Vietnam!”
https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2019/06/23/1928719/maraming-salamat-vietnam
‘ANTONIO CONTRERAS: “When loyalty to the nation ends”
…the story takes a bizarre turn, from that which allege that the fishermen did it on purpose to collect money from the Chinese, to that which allege that the fishermen are part of a destabilization effort against the government of President Duterte. The latter is so outrageous, if not laughable, simply because China has already officially admitted that the incident did occur.
While some of these are simply the work of trolls, there are many that aren’t. Some are done by well-known pro-Duterte bloggers and social media influencers.
https://www.manilatimes.net/when-loyalty-to-the-nation-ends/572038/
BOO CHANCO: “Sad reactions”
The Reed Bank incident revealed we are not a nation, we have no national feelings, no national pride. This can explain why nations like Vietnam, Thailand, and South Korea easily overtook us in the economic front.
There is truth in the observations of James Fallows back in 1987 when the EDSA euphoria was still fresh and much could have been done, but we failed.
“Filipinos pride themselves on their lifelong loyalty to family, schoolmates, compadres, members of the same tribe, residents of the same barangay…
“Because the boundaries of decent treatment are limited to the family or tribe, they exclude at least 90 percent of the people in the country. And because of this fragmentation—this lack of nationalism—people treat each other worse in the Philippines than in any other Asian country I have seen.”
No wonder our officials had no hesitation in throwing our fishermen overboard because their story doesn’t jive with what the administration wants to believe. Neither Cusi nor Piñol felt any obligation towards folks not in their social and political circles.Duterte, on the other hand, probably just feels obligated to China. https://www.philstar.com/business/2019/06/24/1928909/sad-reactions?fbclid=IwAR3lnyRJX-R6q2R_LqFyf-XyrHSpGTDsSvBx5p02M4wsGD1D7bKPCInYLCc