Duterte’s diplomatic kerfuffle: The items wriggling on Yasay’s plate

From curses to geopolitical talks, Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr has a lot on his overflowing plate.

His boss has a now well-earned reputation of cussing anybody and everybody. Yasay said allies, partners and friends of the Philippines will have to grin and bear it when President Rodrigo Duterte cuts loose with a profanity-laced rant.

Duterte has torched the Pope, US President Barack Obama, the EU, and other assorted personalities with a mouth that his mother should probably wash out with soap.

Yasay’s foreign affairs department has been stuck with the job of smoothing over the bruised feelings caused by Duterte’s rough language.

They have a long 6 years since Duterte does not look like he’ll be changing his manners soon, or ever.

“I don’t have to explain…these are always uttered in anger, frustration and disappointment,” Yasay said at a forum to Filipino-Americans in New York recently.

“These are not directed at any personality,” Yasay said to applause by Filipino-Americans packing the auditorium in the consulate.

The dustup with Obama is just the latest example of what lies ahead for Yasay and his team.

Yasay already has enough to deal with Duterte’s runaway vocabulary of purple prose.

“I do not know in what context one would say he is a colorful personality. Certainly it’s not the color of his skin,” Yasay quipped to chuckles from the audience.

“Many of the persons say ‘no,’ they are not bothered by these expletives, not even the Pope, not even Barack Obama. I have nothing to explain.”

He did not say how he knew why the Pope or Obama were not bothered by the cursing.

But a lot of people still blanch at the inability of Duterte to “act presidential” by showing a deft touch in his manners or putting a lid on the expletives flowing out of his mouth.

Switching to the dispute with China over the South China Sea, Yasay defended the tack of holding bilateral talks with Beijing even though the Asian giants’ size and economic influence gives small countries like the Philippines a sharp disadvantage in those talks.

Yasay criticized all other Philippine governments for failing to implement an independent foreign policy, saying it “has not been pursued in the manner contemplated (by the Constitution). We have always been subservient to some foreign country.”

Does it mean choosing one or the other superpower – China or the United States?

Yasay believes foreign policy “does not mean…a closer friendship with China will be weakening our friendship with the US.” (READ: Towards an independent foreign policy)

How to do that in the intensifying atmosphere of Sino-US rivalry, the Philippine official did not say.

Yasay said the decision by the tribunal “provided the legal platform to strengthen our claim and serves as basis for us now to move forward with diplomat processes to make sure the decision would be implemented.”

The problem is that China has already said it will never negotiate on the basis of the tribunal’s verdict.

“Let there be no doubts it is not easy to settle our disputes with China with respect to the West Philippine Sea. They claim the territory is theirs, they claim they will not talk to us if we will talk to them within the confines of the decision of the tribunal.

“We say we will only talk to them within the framework of that ruling. We will fight for our rights insofar as our EEZ (exclusive economic zone) is concerned.”

Yasay cited Manila’s defense treaties with Washington but obviously wants to refrain from leaning on the US in its dispute with China.

“We will not be influenced by irrationality and emotions in claiming – eh sa atin iyan, ipaglaban natin yan, alis kayo diyan (that is ours, we will fight for it, leave now). This not the way we settle international disputes,” he said.

Just because the arbitral case was won against China does not mean we “can drive out anyone who is there. That is not how it works. We still have to engage in bilateral talks to make sure the decision can be implemented.” – Rappler.com

Rene Pastor is a journalist in the New York metropolitan area who writes about agriculture, politics and regional security. He was, for many years, a senior commodities journalist for Reuters. He founded the Southeast Asia Commodity Digest.