Archive for the ‘Foreign Affairs’ Category

‘Beyond my competence’

The quote for this week should be: “It’s not within my competence.” That was what Supreme Court Clerk of Court Enriquita Vidal told the Senate-turned-impeachment court when she was still in a dilemma whether to comply with the trial court’s order to produce the Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Networth of Chief Justice Renato Corona. [...]

January 20, 2012  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Benigno Aquino III, Foreign Affairs  13 Comments

We will miss Sen. Miriam

There is no truth to the malicious talk that Malacañang ordered the Department of Foreign Affairs to work hard for Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago election to the International Criminal Court because they are worried that she would block the conviction of Chief Justice Renato Corona who was impeached by the House of Representatives last Monday. Santiago [...]

December 14, 2011  Tags:   Posted in: Foreign Affairs, Justice  25 Comments

Miriam elected as judge to Int’l Criminal Court

abs-cbnNEWS.com Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago has been elected as a judge in the International Criminal Court, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Tuesday morning. This marks the first time a female judge from a developing Asian country has been elected to the ICC. “I will be the first Filipino to sit there. Plus, I [...]

December 13, 2011  Tags: ,   Posted in: Foreign Affairs  16 Comments

It’s the President who wants me in Beijing: Domingo Lee

It doesn’t matter at all if Domingo Lee was not familiar with the terms “hard power” and “soft power” and other common terms in diplomacy during the Commission on Appointments deliberation on his appointment as ambassador to the People’s Republic of China. He will be the Filipino people’s representative to China because President Aquino wants [...]

December 1, 2011  Tags:   Posted in: Foreign Affairs, Malaya  30 Comments

The danger that Domingo Lee poses to national interest

Sen. Serge Osmeña III was so embarrassed by Domingo Lee’s ignorance about diplomacy that he appealed to President Aquino to withdraw Lee’s nomination as ambassador to China. Related post: http://www.ellentordesillas.com/2011/08/16/will-lee-defend-ph-sovereignty-over-recto-bank-in-beijing/ But no, presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda, as reported by Philippine Star, said President Aquino has no plans at the moment to replace Lee as his [...]

November 25, 2011  Tags:   Posted in: Foreign Affairs, Malaya  28 Comments

Bring China’s 9-dash line to UN: Justice Carpio

The Philippine claim on the islands in the South China Sea , now being called West Philippine Sea by Philippine authorities, could have been stronger had past administrations been more decisive about asserting our claims in the area that is being claimed wholly by China and Taiwan and partially by, aside from the Philippines, Vietnam, [...]

November 7, 2011  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Foreign Affairs, Malaya  10 Comments

Deepening PH and Vietnam relations

The Philippines and Vietnam share a common painful experience with colonial powers but each country dealt with them differently. Philippine history as famously described by the eminent Carmen Guerrro Nakpil was “300 years in convent and 50 years of Hollywood” referring to 300 years of Spanish domination of Filipinos and 50 years under the Americans. [...]

October 26, 2011  Tags:   Posted in: Foreign Affairs, Malaya  15 Comments

China’s 9-dash line: map without coordinates

Although the two Chinese speakers in the recent forum on the South China Sea organized by the prestigious Carlos P. Romulo Foundation with the Institute of Asian Studies ,did not specifically mentioned their country’s nine-dash-line map in asserting the supremacy of their claim over the South China Sea, the subject surfaced several times in the [...]

October 24, 2011  Tags: ,   Posted in: Foreign Affairs, South China Sea  57 Comments

Still in search for a lasting solution to the South China Sea conflict

There’s relative calm in the just recently turbulent waters of South China, which makes it the best time to explore ways to find lasting solutions to the area which is being claimed by Brunei, China, Malaysia, Philippines,Vietnam, and Taiwan. On Oct. 17, the Carlos P. Romulo Foundation for Peace and Development chaired by former Foreign [...]

October 5, 2011  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Foreign Affairs, South China Sea  10 Comments

Fascinating assessments from US Embassy, Manila

I’m fascinated by the Wikileaks releases of the cables from the US Embassy in Manila. The latest I’ve read was then ambassador Kristie Kenney’s assessment of Hermogenes Ebdane, Jr. as the defense secretary written in March 2007. It was one insult after another. It said, “Tongue-tied and reticent, Defense Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane stands in stark [...]

September 4, 2011  Tags: , ,   Posted in: Foreign Affairs  90 Comments