It does not need much brain power to understand that in the highly competitive elections for nonpermanent members of the Security Council in the United Nations, two countries which have long dreamed of a stronger voice in the SC (for years Germany wanted to be permanent member)—the Philippines and Germany, lost their faces in humiliation, along with the vote.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz suffered a humiliating defeat last Wednesday after the UN General Assembly snubbed Germany and instead voted Portugal and Austria two nonpermanent seats in the SC. Merz has shown his rigid support for Israel and the US lately, even if many Germans are opposed to the West Asia and Ukraine wars.
Earlier, Kyrgyzstan (142) trounced the Philippines (49) in the final voting after Manila failed to get two-thirds of the 190 votes available.
Also, Austria, Portugal, Trinidad and Tobago, and Zimbabwe were declared elected members of the SC for a 2-year term beginning in 2027.
Had the Philippines won the vote, President Bongbong Marcos would have gloated over the fact that the country’s standing before the international community has improved. But alas, it was not to be.
The Philippines was bypassed by many countries from having a voice in charting the policies of the United Nations, such as policies on regulating armaments, taking military action against an aggressor, or applying economic sanctions and other measures not involving the use of force to prevent or stop aggression.
This is the international stage, and does not have an iota of connection with the noisy and messy tug-of-war in the Senate of the Philippines; it has a very remote connection with the ongoing impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.
The failed UN Security Council bid of the Philippines is as close to the hundreds of maletas containing dirty money delivered to congressmen, senators and priests as the distance to the Oort Cloud. Yet Marcos blames these local issues which he helped create to the embarrassing loss in the UN.
After Bongbong served a cocktail of dishonesty and political farce as he explained the loss, let me point out that Marcos and Merz were rebuked by the world’s countries because they hinged their future to the United States and Israel on the issues of Gaza, Iran war, and Ukraine.
The US failed to support them in the voting, revealing its dwindling diplomatic clout. China and Russia, both permanent members of the SC, supported their friend Kyrgyzstan. Portugal and Austria won their seats because they stood for basic principles of neutrality and independent foreign policy, unlike Bongbong Marcos.
We are then reaping the ill winds of President Marcos’ pivot to the US, and by extension, Israel, whose ambassador to Manila recently boasted about her country’s participation in the Pax Silica plan called Luzon Economic Corridor, another US scheme to bolster its war policies in the Asia-Pacific region.
Marcos’ failure to convince other countries to put their trust in him should wake him from deep slumber, and show him that the way to progress, prestige and production is to revert to President Digong Duterte’s independent foreign policy.
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