“We need to elect leaders who will put our country’s interests first and foremost.”
This was stressed by lawyer Alex Lacson, a Negrense senatorial candidate running under the team of Vice President Leni Robredo and Senator Kiko Pangilinan, in a virtual forum entitled “Patriotism in the Time of the Pandemic”.
The event was organized by the Rotary Club of Bacolod headed by its president Pauline Cuaycong, and participated in by various Rotary Clubs of Bacolod, Interactors and Rotaractors on Thursday, November 18.
Lacson, in his talk, raised the alarm on the increasing influence of China in the Philippines, especially in the light of the recent bullying of Chinese patrol ships, using water cannons, against Philippine boats in the West Philippine Sea.
Last year, the Senate raised what it called “the silent invasion”, in view of over 4 million Chinese who entered the Philippines since June 2016.
Lacson said that after the US Navy and Air Force left the Philippines in 1992 after the Philippine Senate terminated the US Military Bases Agreement in 1991, China entered the West Philippine Sea and started occupying islands in the area.
“Before 1992, China could not do that as the US Navy and Air Force were patrolling the West Philippine Sea area. At present, China has already occupied several major islands in the area and has built formidable naval and military facilities. The Chinese military patrol ships shoo away Philippine ships and fishermen in the area using water cannons and intimidation,” Lacson said.
Lacson said in the 2014 book entitled “Asia’s Cauldron” written by Dr Robert Kaplan, a Harvard Professor and geopolitical expert, he claimed that the oil and natural gas deposits beneath the islands in the West Philippine Sea are vast and worth many trillions of dollars. Kaplan called the West Philippine Sea as the “Second Persian Gulf” in terms of its oil and natural gas deposits, Lacson said.
Lacson said that these tremendous oil and natural gas deposits are among the main reasons why China wants the West Philippine Sea desperately, because it can sustain the economic and military power of China in the next one hundred to two hundred years.
“But the West Philippine Sea is ours, it falls within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines as defined by UNCLOS or the UN Convention on the Law of the Seas,” Lacson stressed.
“We need to elect leaders who will promote, protect and defend the rights and interest of our country and the Filipino people first and foremost, especially in light of economic and military expansionism of China”, Lacson said.
Lacson also discussed other small acts of love for our country and environment like the need to buy local products and to help in the fight against climate crisis
Present at the virtual event were Bacolod Vice Mayor Elcid Familiaran, Past Rotary District Governor Edgar Sy – Bacolod Filipino-Chinese Chamber president, Rotary Assistant Governor Sharon Parrocho of Zone 6, Ma. Priscilla Hilado – Rotary Club-Bacolod South president, Jeinz Kreistan Salgado – Rotary Club Metro Bacolod president, and Floressa May Castro – Rotary Club of Bacolod Central president.
Also among those who attended were Rotary officers and members from Kabankalan, Binalbagan, Victorias, and even Aklan, Kalibo, Pangasinan and Zamboanga.
Leilani Alba, former president of the Rotary Club of Bacolod, introduced Lacson, who is a cousin and fellow Kabankalanon.*