By now, bloggers, columnists, political analysts, economics, politicians, senators and their dogs have already enunciated all that there is to say about the 19-zero tariffs agreed upon at the White House by President Marcos and US President Donald Trump on July 23.
Also by now, most Filipinos have been made aware that President Bongbong’s much ballyhooed visit to Washington DC only brought us a tiny one-percent slice off the 20-percent tariff imposed by Trump on PH products that enter the United States. Americans, however, will enjoy a free market here.
Donald’s claim that Bongbong was a tough negotiator is thus nothing but an insult hurled without batting an eyelash against the weak Filipino leader.
While the tariff issue is important, we cannot do anything about it. The POTUS dictates, and our very own Bongbong follows.
Meanwhile, the military cooperation part of the meeting is another letdown. Both leaders affirmed the need for an ammunition factory to be set up in Subic, with Trump saying the US and the Philippines “will end up with more ammunition and missiles than any country has ever had.”
It is worthwhile to recall that the US House of Representatives passed a defense spending measure in July, directing concerned agencies to study the feasibility of establishing “a joint ammunition manufacturing and storage facility” in the former US naval base in Subic.
The idea has been met with vigorous opposition and protests from many groups in the Philippines and the US itself.
Protesters said this facility would further make the Philippines a target of US enemies, such as Russia and China. They pointed out that the country is already host to nine EDCA sites which are natural magnets of attack from global enemies of the United States.
To this, clueless Marcos justified the idea as an important act of assistance from the US to further flesh out Manila’s “self-reliance defense posture program… allowing us to be able to stand on our own two feet, whatever the circumstances that occur in the future.”
Bongbong Marcos correctly saw that “there’s been much comment that these military infrastructures and programs we are initiating will make us a target of China. Are we not already a target of China? So, I think that what we have to be thinking about is protecting the Philippines.”
Marcos refuses to acknowledge that China wants peace in the Asian region, and in the whole world, and it is the US—and the Philippines by extension—that is exacerbating the already tense situation in the South China Sea.
No wonder that both Donald and Bongbong said the recent White House trip was successful—but only to them, and not to the Filipino and American peoples.
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