By Robert B. Roque, Jr.
Surprising as it may appear, Malacañang supports the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in filing two diplomatic protests against “best friend” China.
The protest is for China’s pointing of a radar gun at a Philippine Navy ship and its declaration of Philippine territories as part of Hainan province.
But to many Filipinos, the protests should have been lodged a long time ago for many reasons, including the ramming and sinking of a local fishing boat by a Chinese vessel.
It is no secret that since Duterte administration started in 2016, it has been supportive of China and most of its undertakings.
We simply cannot agree with China’s move to establish the Paracel and Spratly territories in the West Philippine Sea as districts under Sansha City. Our ancestors fought hard and some even died to protect our territories. Maybe China needs to be reminded of this fact.
Many Filipinos died for our independence and even today, many are willing to die to preserve our country’s freedom.
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Perhaps, to appease angry Filipinos, China came out with a song expressing brotherhood over the West Philippine Seas during these trying times of the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak.
But instead of gaining support, China enraged more Filipinos with the music video’s imagery of a sea shared by the Philippines and China, which is far from the truth in the disputed seas.
The Chinese embassy in Manila maintained it is merely a friendship song celebrating a new era of partnership and dedicated to the health workers from both countries.
Since the song “One Sea (Iisang Dagat)” was released on social media by the Chinese embassy, it has been criticized, lambasted, and disliked by thousands of irate Filipinos.
Whatever the true reason for the song may be, it stands as Chinese propaganda for Filipino patriots.
The West Philippine Sea is ours. We are not giving it away.
It is ironic for China to say the sea is ours when they have pointed guns at our fishermen and, on many occasions.
What the Filipinos truly want is for China to finally leave the Philippines and the Filipinos alone for us to be able to tend to our business independently like before.
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