President Rodrigo Duterte recently joked about making the Philippines a province of China, but that joke got even less funny yesterday as his political party, PDP-Laban hosted the Philippine book launch of Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s The Governance of China.
PDP-Laban was formed 36 years ago, a merging of two of the biggest parties that opposed the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. It celebrated its anniversary yesterday by — ironically — honoring a foreign leader whose party moved earlier this week to abolish term limits to allow Xi to become president for life.
According to the book’s Amazon description, the text is meant to “help the international community to learn more about and better understand China’s ideas, its path of development, and its domestic and foreign policies, and its response to international concerns about China.”
The celebration was held at the Manila Peninsula Hotel in Makati City and was attended by special guests Dr. Sheng Chuanliang, Communist Party of China (CPC) Vice Minister Giu Yeshou, and Chinese Ambassador to Manila Zhao Jianhua.
Chuanliang spoke at the event to give PDP-Laban a briefing on the book.
No mention was made, however, of the fact that China recently finished reclaiming and militarizing islands in South China Sea/West Philippine Sea, an area declared by international courts in The Hague as Philippine territory.
Nor the fact that the Philippines is seeking nullification of China’s naming of features of the Philippine Rise (formerly known as Benham Rise), even if the area is undisputedly Phiippine territory.
Lawmakers of the party, instead, wanted to learn how they, like China, could “lift 10 million people out of poverty annually.”
The Liberal Party (LP), the former ruling party, and now Duterte’s fiercest opposition criticized PDP-Laban for dining with Chinese officials on their anniversary celebration.
“The joint celebration of PDP-Laban’s 36th founding anniversary and launch of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s book leaves a bad taste in the mouth, considering that we are now seeing the most aggressive military build-up by China in the disputed waters of West Philippine Sea with the Philippine government disturbingly quiet,” said Tañada, a former congressman and member of the LP in a press release.
PDP-Laban’s chairman, current Senate President Aquilino Pimentel defended inviting CPC officials to the party’s anniversary celebrations.
“This is a free country,” Pimentel was quoted in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
“The PDP-Laban can choose who to partner with especially if we are invited. If we are not invited by the American parties, we can’t do anything,” Pimentel told reporters who attended the event.
Pimentel explained that while there are exchanges between “high-level party officials,” he said there is “nothing that states we have to copy the principle of the other side.”
One of the party’s cornerstone priorities is changing the 1987 constitution from a unitary to a federal form of government. Critics raised concerns that charter change might be just an excuse to extend Duterte’s term in office.
To this, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a press briefing yesterday that this was where Duterte and Xi differ. “He [the president] has said he wants to step down earlier if possible and will not stay one minute longer beyond 2022. He will not stay longer than 2022 is absolute. He may step down earlier if the constitution is amended.”
Regardless, Tañada raised valid concerns with the administration’s party and pointed out that inviting Chinese state officials to Philippine political party events contradicts Duterte’s 2016 statement that his government would be pursuing an independent foreign policy.
“Propriety dictates that we should be more judicious of the people we choose to invite to wine and dine. Is this a celebration of our subservience, docility, and surrender?” Tañada asked.
