Palma backs peaceful protests on Spratlys row

CEBU’S Archbishop Jose Palma voiced his support for peaceful protests against China due to the ongoing stand-off at Panatag Shoal in the Spratlys Islands.

Palma, chairman of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, said he supported “in principle” proposals to ban or impose higher taxes on products from China.

He also supported plans of overseas Filipino groups to hold rallies in front of Chinese embassies and consulates across the globe on May 11 but said this should be peaceful.

“Maybe these are procedures or actions which could be discerned by the Filipinos. In truth, I think in principle we have to defend our integrity and supremacy over the land which we believe is our own,” Palma said.

“These are legitimate means to make known our sentiments that we object to the bullying that they’re doing to us,” the archbishop said.

House leaders earlier proposed imposing higher taxes on Chinese products or banning them all together as a form of protest against Chinese aggression.

Political analyst Bobby Tuazon said it won’t be surprising if China wields its economic clout to soften the Philippine claim to the Scarborough Shoal.

Beijing committed 40 development projects for Manila at the beginning of the Aquino administration and could use this as leverage in the standoff, said Tuazon, who teaches political science at the UP Manila College of Arts and Sciences.

“China will use its economic leverage to at least neutralize the Philippines and soften its assertiveness in the territorial claims,” he said in an interview at the Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) in UP Diliman where he serves as director.

After a five-day state visit to China in September 2011, President Aquino announced nearly $13 billion worth of actual and planned Chinese investments in the Philippines.

During the visit, Mr. Aquino invited Beijing to invest some of its $10-trillion surplus capital in Manila, which Filipino-Chinese businessmen expected would put their trade relations into high gear, Tuazon said.

All the potential gains, however, could go down the drain because of the escalating standoff over Scarborough Shoal, he said. Inquirer