Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

The Chinese contributions to the Philippines

The U.S. wants into the Philippines to fight terrorism but more importantly to contain China.

The prominent descendants of Chinese immigrants to the Philippines might have enough influence to keep the U.S. out.

-Am

Wednesday, July 28, 2004


Dr. Jose Rizal’s Chinese Ancestry

The Chinese contributions to the Philippines


The racial and the cultural life of the Filipinos today is the functional summation of the contributions of many peoples, especially the Spaniards, the Americans and the Chinese. The Spaniards and the Americans, however, contributed through conquest and governmental control; the Chinese, in a peaceful and friendly manner. Because of this fact, and the Chinese’s longer association with the Filipinos than the others, it is safe to say that the Chinese contributions are greater and more significant than those of other people.

Students of the Chinese cultural contributions to the Filipino people described them, more or less in detail. For example, economic goods, such as tea, textile, silk, ivory, jewelry, iron and glassware, household utensils, manufacturing and mining skills, clothing, cooking, games of cards, flying kites, and others. These economic objects and skills of course have their by-products, which have affected the Filipino ways of life. But the most significant Chinese contribution to the Filipino people is not in the form of economic goods and skills, but in the form of human beings—the large number of Chinese who settled in the Philippines and whose descendants later on became good and loyal Filipino citizens. Many of these Chinese became loyal Filipinos. And some of them became leaders of the community. Among their descendants, past and present, are found many useful citizens; many of them are prominent leaders in economics, science, arts, professions, religion, government. One of these leaders is Dr. Jose Rizal, the greatest hero of the Filipino people.

(Now on its third year, the Dr. Jose P. Rizal Awards is an annual project of The Manila Times. This year’s awardees will be known on Friday.)


http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/jul/28/yehey/top_stories/20040728top9.html


Philippines, U.S. conducting drills despite reported sour ties


Tuesday, July 27, 2004 at 08:10 JST
MANILA — The Philippines and the United States are conducting this year's joint anti-terrorism military drills as scheduled despite reported strains on relations following the withdrawal of a Philippine contingent from Iraq to save the life of a Filipino hostage, a military spokesman said Monday.
Lt Col Daniel Lucero, spokesman of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, said one of the exercises began as planned Monday morning in the southern Philippines province of Cotabato. (Kyodo News)
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=7&id=306646



Reference:
The Pentagon's leak of a "private agreement" with Filipino officials for a direct U.S. role in fighting the terror group triggered a political crisis in the Philippines, because the country's constitution forbids foreign troops from operating on its soil. The provision is implicitly aimed at the United States, which had to close down its local military bases in 1992.
http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=713013b4811f4cd741f2e3b2f805343f

More important than delivering a coup de grace to the rebels, successful U.S. operations in the southern Philippines could give the United States a forward presence in the Southeast Asian sea lanes. These waters are critical to the movement of U.S. forces from the Western Pacific to the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf. The United States lost a strategic position when Filipino opposition and the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo volcano forced the closure of American military bases in 1992.

More immediately, the United States could stake out a staging area for future strikes against Islamic extremists in Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population, and possibly in Malaysia -- each just hours away by smuggler speedboat. Widespread anti-U.S. sentiment makes stationing American troops unlikely in either country.
http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=a6fd6ed7f7ea38531ed7f7853ae7c383

The United States is trying for control of the Strait of Malacca. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said during a visit to Singapore that he hoped to have US troops fighting terrorism in Southeast Asia "pretty soon". His comments fuelled speculation that the United States wants to deploy US forces in the Strait of Malacca, the narrow and busy shipping lane straddled by Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore that is seen as a likely terrorist target. More than one million tonnes of oil a year -- well over 80 percent of China's imports -- are shipped through the narrow strait.
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