It would be stupid of us to turn down a huge financial aid from other countries especially if it’s meant to contribute to peace in Mindanao.
But the European Union, a group of countries in Europe excluding Britain, has strings attached to its grant of 250 million euros ($278.7 million): The EU wants the government to put a stop to the so-called extrajudicial killings (EJKs).
So, the Duterte administration told the EU to shove it.
Which was the right thing to do because no self-respecting nation would want to be pushed around by other countries.
The EU is practically telling the Duterte government how to run the country, a violation of our sovereignty.
For too long, the country had been dictated upon by Western countries, like the United States and Europe, to do things that degraded our dignity as a sovereign nation.
And the past administrations were only too willing to comply because they didn’t want to lose the dole-outs.
But not the Duterte administration which values national dignity more than foreign
money.
The Filipino people should be proud to have a leader who stands up to Western bullies.
Vestiges of colonialism remain to this day in the form of foreign aid with strings attached.
Now, we’re showing those bullies they are no longer our masters.
During the country’s commonwealth era, many dining places exclusively for white people had this sign posted on their doors: “No dogs and Filipinos allowed.”
That was also true in pre-World War II China, where European and American expatriates looked down on the locals and had the same sign on the doors of dining places exclusively for whites.
Come to think of it, the only people in Asia before the war who were not dominated by
the white people were the Japanese.
In fact, the Japanese made them realize they were not invincible when they suffered defeat after defeat in the early years of the war.
Filipino soldiers fought the Japanese in Bataan and Corregidor side by side with American troops.
Our boys shed their blood with US soldiers and shared the humiliation of defeat.
But after the war, the US government didn’t recognize the blood, sweat and tears of our veterans, depriving them of much-needed pensions which were given to American veterans who fought in the Philippines.
My father, Ramon Sr., who fought as an officer in Bataan and survived the Death March and the Capas concentration camp, was bitter toward the United Staes up to the time of his death in 1985.
“The US considered us like rugs,” he once told me.
The US still considers the country like a doormat, but President Digong is making it realize that Filipinos are no longer their lackeys.