Engaging China

AS he ascends the staircase of the palace a couple of months from now and enters his study, the new chief of state will immediately be greeted by important staff memos, the most important of which is the file marked foreign affairs that will be a brief on the powder keg in the West Philippine Sea and the simmering problem of peace and order in Mindanao which, unfortunately, has been internationalized. In treating these issues, it is hoped that the chief off state will be guided by the spirit of independence and nationalism while discarding the culture servility and mendicancy that has characterized our bilateral relations with our former colonizer. This is only in compliance with the constitutional mandate for the country, to pursue an independent foreign policy, the Constitution specifically states that in its relations with other nations that the paramount consideration shall be national sovereignty, territorial integrity, national interest and the right to self-determination.

It is to be noted that in the preservation of the integrity of the archipelago, the Constitution ordered that the government must preserve its domain as defined by the Treaty of Paris and historic treaties.