A boost for PDU30’s ‘independent’ posture

IN diplomacy, as in chess or any other sports for that matter, the professional player graciously yields when he sees he has lost the game. US Secretary of State John Kerry must have realized there was no way he could talk President Rodrigo Roa Duterte out of his decision to sit down with China, following the Philippines’ July 12 win at the Permanent Court of Arbitration, at The Hague, on Manila’s South China (West Philippine) Sea dispute with Beijing.

Even while still in Vientiane, where he attended the Asean Regional Forum, the East Asia Summit ministerial conference and the Lower Mekong Initiative Ministerial Meeting, and had conversations with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Kerry was already talking about the claimants to the disputed areas “turning the page on past confrontations.” He expanded on this in Manila after his meeting with PDU30 and Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay, Jr.