Development expert and head of Integrated Development Studies Institute (IDSI) George Siy (left) and Economic adviser and former Education Undersecretary Butch Valdes (right)
MANILA – Amid rising tension between superpowers China and the US, development experts called for caution as they urged Filipinos to be more circumspect about information they come across in the media.
George Siy, head of the Integrated Development Studies Institute (IDSI), in a recently concluded virtual conference, said the Philippines is being incited by the increasing “false flags” in the Philippine media.
“[Those] are not always outright lies; but include managed information that are magnified, applied with bias, or timed to coincide with a national event, ignoring contrary information or normal perspectives, to whip up emotions,” he wrote as published in IDSI’s official website.
During a three-hour online forum, Siy, a development expert, said these types of news are dug up “whenever the Philippines and China have some relationship-building occasion coming up”.
Cited as an example was an Inquirer story of the Philippines donating emergency medical supplies to China published in the middle of March in 2020 when the Philippines already declared enhanced community quarantine amid the pandemic outbreak.
He said the donation was, in fact, sent in February at the height of the pandemic in China.
Siy added that there were also several occasions implying that China is invading the Philippines.
In June 2019, the Chinese Embassy has condemned the staged selling of Chinese flags in Luneta Park.
In Siy's report, it was stated that vendors admitted to having been supplied by Filipinos who paid them to sell the flags.
"It is not unusual to sell flags, shirts, caps, etc. of different countries on occasions, although normally the host country flag is also sold. The point not being that it is right, but that it happens, and has on occasions been shown to likely have been planted," he added.
“There's always something that comes up and it's always by the same people, from the same sources,” he said.
Though it might appear as a “minor issue”, the friendship between China and the Philippines is at stake.
The intricacies of chiming in these hybrid wars, Siy said, can affect developing countries like the Philippines.
“We should be circumspect about what we believe in, let’s not get drawn into a fight that is not ours,” Siy said.
The development expert added that some international media, mostly based in the US, have also patterns of output that seem to “demonize China”.
“If we're talking about bullies, more than half of the U.S. budget goes for their military. It is more than the military budget of the eight other countries combined. [In their articles], they will say that China has this big 200 billion budget but they don't mention this 700 billion dollar budget of the US spent around the world as a trade for selling arms and making profit from it,” he said.
In his presentation, a bar showed that even if China, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Japan, India, Saudi Arabia, Germany, along with Brazil, Italy, South Korea, Australia, and Canada combine their military fund, it will only total to USD695 billion.
The U.S. alone, he said, allocates some USD711 billion for its military.
In 2019, Forbes wrote that China has written off around USD9.8 billion in debt to other countries in the last decade.
Siy also mentioned that China has forgiven the Philippines $150 million of loans.
“This is a trade war and currently, the US is on top. All these efforts are from them wanting to stay on top. [But as data suggests] within 15 years, China is going to double its economy and will be more than double the size of the U.S. economy,” he said.
Not invading PH
Economic adviser and former Education Undersecretary Butch Valdes, in the same conference, said the U.S. somehow reached the end of its time imposing the Philippines.
“When Barack Obama tried to deny the 700-million USAID funding to the Philippines for imposition purposes, President (Rodrigo) Duterte declared his foreign policy. [It was like him saying] we are no longer your colony, we have other aids,” he said.
After President Duterte’s first state visit to China, which secured billions of pesos worth of assistance for the country’s Build, Build, Build program, the active participation of the private sector and foreign partners, including Japan, the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Europe, and the US followed suit.
"We have to understand that prior to President Duterte, the Philippines is no longer invited to international meetings because other countries think we are just going to echo what the U.S. says or wants," Valdes continued.
In one of his published columns in Manila Times, Siy said Duterte’s foreign policy has been criticized as a pivot to China, discounting the fact that such linkage, especially the people-to-people aspect, has managed disputes and allowed other aspects of relations such as market building and economy to thrive.
Since 2016, China became the country’s biggest trade partner.
"Stalled for over a decade, Chinese lending to the Philippines materialized with concessional loans granted for dam and irrigation projects intended to create 15,000 jobs and provide for the development needs of the country for decades," Siy said.
China also provided assistance in the construction of major rehabilitation facilities, school buildings in the poorest communities, and new bridges worth USD100 million.
In a further note, Siy said he wanted Filipinos to realize that the Philippines is only expanding its borders, coming closer to the goal of globalization as what other countries are doing and it is not China trying to invade the country.
"China does not want the Philippines as a province, neither does the U.S. The cost of managing it will be far higher than just doing business with, traveling to, paying for each other’s goods and services. Philippines' GDP, at 360 billion USD in 2019, is less than 2.7 percent of China's GDP, less than half a year’s 6 percent growth; it is less than 2 percent of US GDP. Philippines’ value is strategic in physical position, we should use that to our advantage," he said.
"Cooperation transcends borders and time. While differences remain and should be properly handled, they should neither consume all our energies nor define our overall relations with neighbors. Instead, we should continue expanding areas of confluence where we can work together for shared benefit. This thinking should guide our leaders and people as we steer our country to peace and progress, as well as inclusive advance for Filipinos," he said.
Instead of picking on trivial matters, the Philippines, he said, should prioritize high value-yielding activities and focus on managing our domestic issues on health, corruption, logistically, planned infrastructure, environment, and enterprise creation.
"In this we can work with the US, China, Japan, everyone. This is being practiced by the fast-rising countries like Vietnam, India, Japan, South Korea, that continue positive, productive, conflict-minimizing, economy-enhancing relations with the very same nations they have disputes with. Time for Filipinos to stop thinking nationalism is shown by fighting and dying," he said. (PNA)
