Yearender: Manila ushers in new era of Sino-Philippine relations under Duterte as China extends warm hand

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has showered China with praise in his speeches for helping the Philippines in its tough war on drugs.

Last Saturday, he announced that China has pledged to build another rehabilitation facility in the country.

"China has the kindest soul of all," Duterte told a news conference in his home city of Davao, after he returned from visits to Cambodia and Singapore.

Were it not for China and "a good soul" (Chinese) philanthropist Huang Rulun," Duterte said the cash-strapped government would not have built a 10,000-bed facility big enough to house an increasing number of drug dependents in the country.

"(That's why) I said to China's Xie Xie. Thank you," Duterte said.

After he arrived from his four-day trip to China in October, Duterte reported that his visit "signaled a turning point in history and opened formal lines of communications" between Beijing and Manila, paving the way for the resumption of the bilateral consultations, which were on hold for several years.

"It showed that both countries are fully capable of working together for mutual beneficial cooperation, as we remain committed to settling disputes peacefully in full adherence of international law," Duterte added.

"In all meetings, we had productive and extensive discussions of the full-range of Chinese-Philippine relations, from trade to infrastructures and tourism, and to science and technology and health," The Filipino leader said.

Indeed, the Philippines' new ambassador to China, Jose Santiago Sta. Romana, is optimistic about the future relations between China and the Philippines.

In a message to Xinhua, Sta. Romana said Sino-Philippine cooperation is "improving," and that "prospects are bright for further development of Philippine-China ties in 2017."

"Philippines-China relations have entered a new chapter after the successful state visit of Duterte to China last October," Sta. Romana said in a statement.

He said diplomatic ties between Beijing and Manila "are improving with the resumption of bilateral talks between the two governments."

China is at odds with a number of its Asian neighbors, including the Philippines, over disputed claims in the South China Sea, through which 5-trillion-U.S.-dollars-worth of ship-borne trade passes each year.

However, Sta. Romana said the sea dispute "should not be and will not be an obstacle to the development of bilateral ties" between the two countries.

"The focus and the key driver of Philippines-China relations under the Duterte administration will be economic, trade and finance," he stressed, adding that "economic cooperation, not disputes, will drive Philippines-China relations."

"the disputes will not disappear overnight but there will be direct talks and bilateral talks to resolve them peacefully."

Sta. Romana said the Philippines "has shifted to seeking better political and economic ties with China but is not seeking a military alliance."

"At best, it would be an alliance of trade and commerce," he said. This time, he reiterated the fact that economic cooperation and not disputes, will drive Sino-Philippines relations.

"So it's basically normalizing relations again but it doesn't mean the dispute issue has gone away. The disputes and the contentious issues we've compartmentalized will be discussed individually with the use of quiet not megaphone diplomacy," he said.

Manila is "moving fast" to rekindle its ties with Beijing that had soured since 2012 when Manila lodged a case against China over Huangyan Island in the South China Sea in an interim tribunal at The Hague.

Over the weekend, Duterte restated that the Philippines would not press China on an arbitral ruling over the South China Sea issue.

"In the play of politics now, I will set aside the arbitral ruling," he told a news conference last Saturday, adding, "I will not impose anything on China. Why? Because the politics here in Southeast Asia is changing. Like us now, I will separate or I will demand that you (U.S. forces) go out of my country."

Since Duterte's visit in October, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said last week that Manila was able to close a 100 million-U.S. dollar contract for fruit exports to China, along with the lifting of Chinese bans on Philippine bananas and mangoes.

The widely-circulated Philippine Daily Inquirer ran an editorial on Duterte's Beijing visit.

"By design, his 'sum total' approach to Philippine-Chinese relation is now center stage: a calibrated attempt to lower tensions related to the South China Sea disputes, a greater focus on trade and economic issues, and also a willingness to use Chinese largesse to fill the infrastructure deficit in the Philippines," read the editorial.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin called the Duterte visit "highly successful," saying it "signifies the full return of China and the Philippine's friendship back to its normal level."

Liu said, after the bilateral talks between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Duterte, "A new stage is now open between the two countries to address the South China Sea issue though bilateral discussions, and it means a full recovery of the traditional friendship between China and the Philippines."

Duterte's so-called pivot to China is seen by many politicians and observers as the right move at the right time.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez and Pernia said Duterte has rebalanced Philippine foreign policy by ordering his cabinet to move quickly towards regional economic integration with ASEAN and North Asia's powerhouses, such as China.

Even before the victory of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, Dominguez said the Duterte administration was already keen on joining the China-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, rather than the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which is being championed by outgoing President Barack Obama who framed the TPP as the centerpiece of the U.S. "pivot to Asia." The U.S.-led trade pact excludes China.

"With the TPP's fate uncertain," Dominguez said Duterte's "China pivot could not have come at a better time, especially with the Philippines chairing ASEAN next year on its 50th anniversary as a regional bloc."

Dominguez said the Philippines is more than ready to chair the ASEAN meetings in 2017, as Duterte "had apparently foreseen correctly the need to turn ASEAN's attention toward China, the world's second-largest economy that wants to establish a larger economic presence in the Asia-Pacific region."

Dominguez recalled how Duterte "had come under heavy fire for this sharp foreign policy turn, earning harsh criticism from certain sectors in the process, only to be seen as the leader who had presciently seen that a timely pivot to China is in the best interests of not only the Philippines, but of ASEAN as a whole."

Dominguez has said in previous interviews that the Duterte administration is more open to the RCEP than TPP, given its new policy of moving the country swiftly towards economic integration with its fellow-members in ASEAN and major trade partners in Asia and the Pacific.

"With the TPP now apparently dead in the water and a growing resurgence of protectionism in the U.S., Manila's recalibration of its foreign policy would benefit not only the Philippines, but would also help the rest of ASEAN move closer to China and its vast trading market," Dominguez said.

Last December, the Philippine senate voted 20 to 1 to ratify the Philippines' membership in the Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Duterte is sending his economic team to China in January next year to firm up infrastructure projects that will be funded by the AIIB.

National Treasurer Roberto Tan said last week that the government is "looking at between 300 and 500 million U.S. dollars for the initial year" as a financial window that it can tap from the AIIB."

Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said last week that he, Dominguez and Pernia will travel to Beijing to negotiate specific projects with the AIIB.

"The president's visit to China last October promises many positive outcomes," Diokno said. "It promises greater trade with China, which right now is already our country's second-biggest trading partner. It promises to double or triple agricultural exports to China. It promises more than a million Chinese tourists to the Philippines, and it promises fresh infrastructure financing for us."

AIIB President Jin Liqun visited Manila on Dec. 12 ti Dec. 14, during which he met with Duterte, Dominguez and other government officials.

"The bank looks forward to supporting the Philippines in its endeavor to develop world-class infrastructure, including in the transportation sector," Jin said in a statement issued at the end of his Manila visit.

Duterte's foreign secretary, Perfecto Yasay, said the strategy works. "What we are doing is that we set aside (the dispute) and we foster the other aspects of our relations like trade, investment even infrastructure development, cooperation in certain areas that we could do without violating or undermining our respective rights," he said.

"That's our strategy now, and we have somehow achieved some breakthroughs along that line," Yasay said in a recent TV interview. "In fact, we can see now that our fishermen have free access in that Scaborough Shoal (Huangyan Island) because of the confidence building measures that we have adopted in the meantime."

Political analyst Benito Lim clearly believes China is "extending a friendly hand."

"The first thing that China did was withdraw sanctions imposed during the previous Aquino administration. They did not buy our agricultural products like bananas and pineapples and such like. Now, they are buying our agricultural products ... There are concrete changes that we see now. They're showing us that they are extending a friendly hand," Lim told Xinhua in a recent interview. Enditem