INTERVIEW WITH H.E. JOSE SANTIAGO STA. ROMANA
Philippine Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
People’s Republic of China
May 12, 2017
This—they call it the ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative, or in short, the Belt and Road Initiative. It’s basically an ambitious project or initiative by China, to revive the old silk road or the routes along this silk road, which would link Asia, the Middle East, Central Asia with Europe; but the driving idea is really connectivity economic cooperation and the basic stress is really on promoting— you know, infrastructure development that will link up.
There are some 65 countries in this Belt and Road Initiative, there are two components, they call it: The belt which is actually the overland route and the other one is the maritime silk road.
The overland silk road really is based on the ancient silk road and the maritime silk road is also based on an ancient route that the Chinese explorer used to go down the South China Sea and on to the Indian Ocean, all the way to Africa— Eastern Africa.
In this modern context, this initiative is really identified with the Chinese President Xi Jinping, he enunciated this in 2013, so we’re on the fourth year of this initiative, this are early years because this is like a long term vision that China has, in terms of promoting economic development in this regions.
Well, the Philippines, President Duterte is coming to participate in this forum to promote Philippine economic interest and to promote Philippine development interests. The basic goal for the Philippines is how the Belt and Road Initiative can be leveraged or can be used to promote our economic interests,or promote our economic development.
So, the basic approach that the Philippines has adopted here is, where there are areas in the president’s economic priorities, in his 10-point Socio-Economic Agenda that converge with the Belt and Road Initiative, these are areas where we can cooperate and particularly in the area of infrastructure and in the area of promoting foreign trade and foreign investment.
As of course, this also includes the area of promoting people to people exchanges. The Philippines is also interested, being the chair of ASEAN to seek areas in the ASEAN masterplan for connectivity, in areas where it converges again and aligns with the Belt and Road Initiative, this represent the areas of cooperation. Again, these are areas involving connectivity and infrastructure.
So, for example. Recently, President Duterte open the maritime link between the Philippines, between Davao and Indonesia with President Jokowi, so instead of the goods going to Manila and then going to Indonesia, it’s a direct maritime connection on the RORO project, you know, the goods are put on the truck and they board the ferry and they go on to Indonesia and the connectivity vision of ASEAN is to connect the different islands, you know, Indonesia, Malaysia, all the way to Singapore and then from Singapore and the Mainland Southeast Asia, there is the Belt and Road Initiative to have the—as well as the ASEAN vision of the Pan-Asian Railway connection, the Pan-Asian Continental Highway.
So, this is where we are interested in promoting this connectivity, so that then as the Philippines can then expand its market not only to ASEAN, not only to China but even to the other countries beyond China that are part of the Belt and Road Initiative.Of course, this is the long range, possible benefit, we approach it from the point of view of how we could leverage the Belt and Road Initiative and the President’s Socio-Economic Agenda and the ASEAN vision of a masterplan connectivity to promote our economic development.
So, that we can then promote infrastructure development which will be the foundation for a sustainable economic growth. Exactly, this is how we’ve view—the president is coming with an open mind, to learn more about this initiative. There are 27 other heads of state, heads of the government participating from over— and ministers, cabinet secretaries from over 60 countries.
So, the president and his cabinet secretaries, I mean, the economic managers are all coming, we’ll have a chance to exchange ideas, we’ll have a chance to explain the Philippines— you know, DuterteNomics, you know, the Duterte’s economic vision, economic program for the Philippines and how this exchange experience with other countries as well as to see how it can be aligned with the Belt and Road Initiative.
On the basis, of course, of sovereign equality and mutual benefit, in other words, we view it as a component part of our independent foreign policy. We view it as part of the Philippines seeking to benefit from friendship with all the major powers whether part of the Belt and Road Initiative, or outside it and maximizing the benefits for the Filipino people and for our economic development.
Well, actually what we’re doing right now is to further improve and further boost the bilateral relations between the two countries. So recently, I was able to attend, you know, the resumption of the Joint Commission on Trade and Commerce between the two countries. The Joint Commission on Agriculture, the Joint Commission on Fisheries, and then, there’s also a Joint Commission for the Two Coast Guards. So what we’re doing is promoting cooperation, you know, not only between the two coast guards but to promote economic growth, economic trade and economic cooperation.
Basically, the basic approach is how to develop areas of cooperation between the two sides, as you know, there were 13 joint Memorandum of Understanding or Memorandum of Agreements signed when the president was here last October.
So, what we’re trying to do is transform all these into reality, okay. And part of this, aside from economics and trade, part of this is also developing sports exchanges, cultural exchanges, the Chinese ballet has performed in Manila and now, our Philippine ballet troop is also planning to perform here.
And then, there are opportunities also not only in cultural but in educational exchanges, as well as, there is the Joint Commission in Science and Technology will meet again. You see, relations were frozen for the past couple of years due to the strange relations so what we’re doing is normalizing all these, and using these as a platform to further improve relations.
So these are all projects that are ongoing, but the key—the key is that bilateral relations will now be driven by friendly cooperation, by projects in economics, in trade, in culture, in art, in science and technology and will not be driven by disputes. The disputes will be taken from the front and center taken to another track, so that we will have in a sense two tracks: A track of all contentious issues and then, a track where there no contentious issues, and where you can fast-track cooperation in different areas. And this is exactly what is happening right now.
The most complete benefit, of course, that are obvious to the Filipino people has been the growth of agricultural exports. If you go around Beijing now, you will see bananas and pineapples from the Philippines in the Chinese markets. So, the Chinese consumers are able to benefit again from all this tropical fruits and the Chinese have pledged to buy a billion dollars’ worth of tropical fruits.
And then, there is that influx of tourists. This year, we expect to double the number of Chinese tourists from about that— the level of about 400 to 600,000 to almost a million; and we may exceed a million. So, we’re trying to redress the situation, this prevailed in the past where there were more Philippine tourists in China than Chinese tourists in the Philippines.
And I think, we are now approaching a period where the Chinese— tourists from China will become the leading, or at least, the number two source of tourism for the Philippines will be competing with South Korea.
Well, here in the embassy, we received a lot of inquiries about, you know, how they can invest, how they can engage business in the Philippines, and there’s actually, investment pledges. Okay, in terms of building a stainless steel factory, in terms of building, you know, a power plants, building reservoirs. So, here, you have to divide it into two components. One is the infrastructure project to be funded by Chinese concessional loans, by the China Export and Import Bank.
There’s also the Chinese state-owned enterprises and the Chinese private enterprises that are willing to invest in the Philippines, and to setup business there. I met the other day, a Chinese businessman who has stayed in the Philippines for quite sometime, and he is engaged with the Filipino partner in producing, you know, virgin coconut oil which they now sell on the Chinese website here.
And so, the important thing right now, of course, they have to understand the Philippine business environment. You know, we have a 60-40 rule, when it comes to investment, so they need to find a Filipino partners, reliable partners and then, there is one decision that a lot of investors are waiting for and this is the decision on where the industrial park will be.
Because the Chinese investors, I think they feel safer. It’s almost like the Chinatown complex they want to. It is true the Japanese also have their area where they tend to set up their factories. The Koreans also tend to have to setup factories, the Chinese is the same. They want to find an area where they can have an industrial park where most of them can setup their factories there.
So, I think, once we’ve solved a number of these issues, then we can create this conducive investment environment that will make it easier for them to finally bring in their money. So now there are a lot of discussions going on, there are a lot of inquiries going on, the key though, is how to transform this into actual contracts, into actual factories and that remains to be the challenge.
But we’re in early days, it’s only be in the couple of months. So, a lot of the work is towards this and when the president comes here, some of the people he’ll meet are also Chinese businessman. And they’ll actually— the Filipino economic managers will hold a meeting, a workshop on— you know, what the president’s economic program is, and this is also one way to attract more investment in the Philippines.
Well, first of all, I think we have to accept the reality that China is a neighbor. It is actually—we’re just divided by the South China Sea, and historically, you know, before Magellan set foot in the Philippines, the Chinese were already sailing. And Filipinos then known as Austronesians, you know, the natives, inhabitants of the Philippines were already sailing around the South China Sea and we’re already sailing to China.
And even before Magellan arrived in the Philippines, the Sultan of Sulu, with his entourage was already using this old, old boats the ancient boats which turned out to be very versatile and they made it to Fujian province in Southern China and they brought the pearls and other products of the Sulu Sea and they offered it as a symbol of friendship to the main dynasty emperor that time.This is in the early in 1400s, and on its way back, unfortunately, he got sick and he died in a Chinese province not too far from Beijing. The province of Shandong and so the emperor actually built a tomb for the Sultan of Sulu there. And two of his sons stayed behind and they intermarried, so there is a lineage of the Sultan of Sulu, there is a Chinese the Chinese people who derived their origin and their lineage from the Sultan of Sulu.
So, it goes back real—the point I’m making is that geographically, China is there, we cannot hide our head in the sun and pretend that China is not there. We cannot transfer the Philippines to somewhere near Hawaii, or somewhere near San Francisco or LA, however we may want to.
The Philippines will stay where it is and once the people who can afford it can immigrate, the overwhelming majority of people who will stay and live in the archipelago that is located where we are.
And so, it is important to have friendly relations with China, it is importaant to engage with China, and that is why, the Duterte administration has decided to shift from anadversarial relationwith China to a friendly and conciliatory relationship with China. It does not mean that we’re giving up our maritime claims, we still have our differences, what we’re doing is that we’re putting it on separate tracks, so that disputes will not be at the center and will not affect the overall atmosphere nor will it be an obstacle to developing relations.
And this is the basic strategy that the president has adopted as a part of—as a component of his overall independent foreign policy. So it is important to have a peaceful relationship, a friendly relationship with China. Of course, there are those in the Philippines, you know, their public opinion surveys in the Philippines that show that Filipinos have a very distrusful of China and part of this is, has to do with history, part of it has to do with the lack of understanding, and also part of it has to do with the reports of how China is assertively asserting its claims.
So, on the one hand, we need to understand China and the Chinese mindset, Chinese culture. On the other hand, China has to understand the Philippine politics, Filipino people and the way we behave, the way we think. Although, we are both Asians, and we have some common points, we also have major differences in the way we approach problems.
And so, what is needed is to meet halfway, we try to do what we can on our part and China also, being the bigger country, the bigger power has to reassure the Philippines and its neighbors, that it has benign intention, peaceful intention. Because there are those who are afraid that China, could it be become another Japan of the 1940s, could they take over Palawan or Luzon, you know, but the Chinese they insist that they’re not going to do such a thing and their tactics are different.
What they consider to be part of their historical past, that’s what they’re trying to recover. We dispute this, of course, if we don’t agree with this, but the point is, now we have an opportunity, we have an opportunity not that we can solve the problems overnight but that we can, at least, try to manage it and discuss it in a peaceful manner.
Because some of these issues, the question of who owns the Spratly, who owns Scarborough Shoal, you know, the tribunal award, the Nine-Dash Line will not be solved overnight. you know, and so the issue is, how to put it in its proper context, that it is a small part compared to the bigger picture that you could benefit from good bilateral relations with China.
In the past, we made I think the unfortunate, step of cutting-off bilateral talks and freezing relations, of course, there is responsibility on both sides but the point is that, now, we have an opportunity to deal with the problems in a peaceful diplomatic way; at the same time, while these problems are not solved, you benefit from the relations because in the end, diplomacy has to be in the service of the people.
Diplomacy has to— the people have to derive benefits from diplomacy and so that is why, the stress is on economic cooperation, because this is the way that people then will understand the benefit of having peaceful and friendly relations with an immediate neighbor.
It is the same way that we view our Southeast Asian neighbors, that we are part of ASEAN, the first priority in diplomacy is to have good relations with neighboring countries.
Well, it is a big challenge and that is what keeps us busy here but the challenge is surmountable, we just have to divide it into manageable parts. The pressing task right now is how to convert, you know, the 13 Memorandum of Understanding, Memorandum of Agreement signed last October into reality, and we have already— that’s what we’re trying to do one by one.
For agricultural export, I think, that’s already done, it’s a continuing work in progress.
Tourism, there’s already a boom.
For infrastructure, of course, this could take time, you need a gestation period, you need a feasibility study, you need the bidding process, the procurement process, the awarding of contracts, but at least, right now, through the joint efforts on both sides, there is now a target of starting the ground work on three projects before the end of the year.
This would be the Chico dam, irrigation project in Kalinga, Apayao; and then, there is the—this would irrigate a large number of farmland and would help in alleviating poverty, in improving the living standards of the farmers.
Then, there is the New Centennial Water Source, it’s called the Kaliwa Dam. Merong kanan, may kaliwa eh. Kaliwa Dam, it’s a big reservoir that will provide a new source of water supply to the Metro Manila area, which is already, you know, which will encounter water shortages.