[OPINION] Rodrigo Duterte and his ‘unconditional love’ for China

Senator Risa Hontiveros delivered the following speech at the book launch of “Unrequited Love: Duterte’s China Embrace,” authored by Rappler editor-at-large Marites Vitug and former Rappler reporter Camille Elemia, at the University of the Philippines Bahay ng Alumni on July 18, 2024.

A very good afternoon to everyone. To Marites Vitug and Camille Elemia, a huge congratulations for this book. 

If any of you have followed our interventions in the Senate when it comes to China’s incursions into the West Philippine Sea, I almost always refer to Marites’s earlier work, Rock Solid: How the Philippines Won Its Maritime Case Against China.

It gave me a much, much deeper appreciation not only for the significance of the 2016 arbitral award but also for all the people who were in the frontlines of this legal and diplomatic battle – people like the esteemed former Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio, who has continued to inspire in us the drive, grit, and courage to stand up to a bully. 

Rock Solid is such a rich resource, a treasure trove of facts and stories that serves like a bible of sorts for those who want to defend our sovereignty. So you can imagine my excitement when I heard that Marites has started working on a new book; this time with another terrific journalist, Camille. 

Unrequited Love: Duterte’s China Embrace, as I have written in my blurb for the book, is a damning record of the former President’s long-running relationship with China. It affirms what we have already known: that there has been no President in the history of the Philippines that has so brazenly, so openly, so shamelessly sold our country out to China like Duterte did. 

That the former President loves China is not a surprise. What the book has revealed — and is quite shocking — is how deep and long this affair with China has been going on. It’s as though the Filipino people was duped into a relationship with Duterte in 2016, without fully knowing that his loyalty and affection was for somebody else. 

It should have already been a bright red flag when, on July 12, 2016, as we received news of the landmark Hague Ruling, the Duterte administration chose to stay mum. To act as if this victory didn’t put our country in the annals of history. To diminish the power that it has given the Philippines in this difficult and grating intergenerational fight against China.

Fresh from being elected to the highest of the land, his deafening silence on the 2016 arbitral award was a premonition of things to come — not only in terms of our foreign policy, but also in terms of national governance and politics. 

As soon as he took office, it became clear that he was going to pivot away from our traditional allies who’ve had longstanding collective commitments to uphold human rights and the international rules-based order. 

As soon as he was President, Duterte, riding on the populist wave, persisted with his single-issue message on the war on drugs — a message that created a climate of fear, impunity, and violence among our people. A narrative that allowed him to employ classic political theatrics by persecuting political enemies, with former senator Leila de Lima as a central figure. A story that created villains out of journalists, the media, us in the Opposition, and all other democracy-loving nations who condemned and sought accountability for his murderous drug war. 

As part of the minority during the Duterte administration, it was frustrating to witness how very rarely he or China was called out by other colleagues. It felt like we, in the Minority, were alone in pushing back against his proclivity towards autocratic regimes. 

In fact, when Duterte announced that the Philippines was going to withdraw from the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the International Criminal Court (ICC), only the six of us in the then-Minority resisted. Only the six of us — former senators Frank Drilon, Kiko Pangilinan, Leila de Lima, Bam Aquino, Sonny Trillanes, and me — asked the Supreme Court to void the Duterte-mandated withdrawal from the ICC. 

But our effort was essentially pushed aside. Duterte, resting easy on the loyalty of his acolytes in the Legislature and the Judiciary, had his way. When the Philippines did terminate our relations with the ICC, it established Duterte’s image as an international pariah and resulted in him relying on China even further. 

Nonetheless, we kept pushing back. Kept resisting. Kept calling him out. I remember, when he downplayed the 2019 incident in which Chinese crewmen abandoned Filipino fishermen after a collision in the Recto Bank, I demanded that he apologize to the Filipino people for lawyering for China, that he stop being subservient to China, and that he actually fight for our national interest. 

But, as this book clearly portrays, Duterte’s unconditional love for China knows no limits. All throughout his presidency, he doggedly defended China — even when hundreds of Chinese ships were seen swarming the Julian Felipe Reef in the middle of the pandemic, even when Filipino ships were constantly harassed and threatened by the Chinese Coast Guard, even when promises of China funding infrastructure projects went awry. 

What is worse, even well after his presidency, the ghost of his China pivot still looms large over us. Just a few months ago, the Chinese Embassy in Manila alleged that there was a “Gentleman’s Agreement” between Duterte and Beijing. 

An “agreement” that agreed to Philippine vessels and aircraft refraining from coming closer than 12 nautical miles from Panatag or Scarborough Shoal, just over 120 nautical miles away from mainland Zambales, and well within our exclusive economic zone. 

An “agreement” to not repair or build structures at Ayungin shoal, to not reinforce our biggest sovereign marker, the BRP Sierra Madre. 

If true, these were agreements that were kept secret…and hidden away from the Filipino people. This is why I filed Proposed Senate Resolution No. 984 to look into this treasonous “Gentleman’s Agreement” and I have done so because these are serious — potentially divisive — allegations. 

These are serious because the first “Gentleman’s Agreement” effectively diminishes our sovereignty by conceding a “no-go” zone for Philippine ships and aircraft inside our own EEZ, as well as the unlawful occupation of Panatag Shoal by a foreign power. 

The second risks our tenuous toehold in Ayungin. If we do not repair and reinforce the BRP Sierra Madre, it will fall to wind and wave, and with it our control of Reed Bank — which may hold as much as 5.4 billion barrels of oil and 55.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. 

The news about this so-called “Gentleman’s Agreement” came out after I already received the first manuscript of this book, which only goes to show how there may still be more that we do not yet know about Duterte’s special relationship with China. Perhaps we might need to watch out for “Unrequited Love Part 2!” 

But of course, this book in itself is already a revelation. It details how a “small-time” mayor from the south of the Philippines long nurtured a relationship with a big-time superpower. How he curated a space where local politics, business interests, and international relations can all intermingle to suit his personal ambitions. How the relationships he’s built became the bane of an entire nation’s existence. 

The extensive historical and contextual information in the book is highly commendable. The authors were even able to trace how the notorious Michael Yang became part of Duterte’s inner circle. Michael Yang who became his economic presidential advisor. The same Michael Yang who was implicated in the Pharmally scandal. The same Michael Yang who seems to also have ties with criminal-infested POGOs. 

In fact, in our most recent expose, we found that Michael Yang’s brother, Yang HongJiang, has a joint bank account with one Yu Zheng Can, an incorporator of the raided POGO in Bamban, Tarlac. Yes, we discovered that the company of the infamous Mayor Alice Guo or Guo Hua Ping has direct transactions with this joint bank account. In short: Michael Yang’s brother was funding the POGO in Bamban. 

And according to our research, during Duterte’s time, the Yang brothers went to Beijing to attend a “Chinese Communist Party-sponsored conference” as Philippine representatives of the All China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese. 

It is truly outrageous that until now – even with Duterte out of power – the dark shadows of his administration still follow us. A darkness that can still return in the 2025 elections. A darkness that can once again envelope our nation for the years to come. 

The threat of a Duterte comeback is why books like Unrequited Love should be read and shared and explained and repeated as many times and as widely as possible. 

Unrequited Love is an important record of the sins of a Philippine president. Of his unfaithfulness to his mandate. Of his betrayal of the Filipino people. 

We need this record to make him accountable for his actions. 

We need this so we learn our lessons.

Again, congratulations at maraming salamat (and thank you so much), Marites and Camille, for this book, for this historical record. We will do our best to make good use of this work. 

Salamat po sa panahon at sa pakikinig (Thank you for the time and for listening). – Rappler.com