• 6 AUGUST - *1907 - Gen. Macario Sakay, one of the Filipino military leaders who had continued fighting the imperialist United States invaders eight years into the Ph...
    11 years ago

......................................................................................

The Daily Tribune

(Without Fear or Favor)

Specials:

Bulatlat.com

World Wildlife Fund for Nature-Philippines

The Philippines Matrix Project

Empty and unavailing CROSSROADS Jonathan De la Cruz 05/14/2012

Monday, May 14, 2012

Empty and unavailing

CROSSROADS
Jonathan De la Cruz
05/14/2012
It is good that the Philippines and China, as Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario advised, are talking again and are trying to find “temporary solutions” to the ongoing standoff over the Scarborough Shoal which has taken more time than necessary to dissipate. Del Rosario is talking about “disengaging without losing face” which was what this column and other concerned citizens have been trying to advise since this dispute got unduly hyped mainly by clumsy, undiplomatic moves by some senior administration officials resulting in confusing their Chinese counterparts and moved us closer to the brink. No less than Palace spokesman Edwin Lacierda and to a certain extent, Del Rosario himself, have committed such unforgivable blunders.

We said then and we are saying so again: There is no substitute for quiet, diplomatic measures to lower the decibel of the rhetoric and discuss ways of “saving face.” We even pointed out that we should not have sent our warship, BRP Gregorio del Pilar, as we engaged some of the Chinese fishing boats in the first instance. And right before we withdrew the Del Pilar and issued our “sovereignty claim” we should have at the same time rushed to the negotiating table and discussed things over with the Chinese..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20120514com4.html

0 comments

Blog Archive