This article reflects on the intellectual debates surrounding the abrogation of the Philippines-United States military bases agreement in 1991, highlighting the erudition of the Philippine Senate at the time. It then contrasts this with the current Senate, criticizing its lack of intellectual capacity to navigate the complex policy challenges posed by Donald Trump's presidency. The article expresses concern about the Senate's ability to effectively respond to Trump's disruptive executive orders and potentially harmful trade policies.
THE enlightened and intelligent debates that eventually led to the decision of the Philippine Senate to abrogate the Philippines-United States military bases agreement in September 1991 were totally expected of a Senate with erudition and brain power, one attuned to the workings of the world at large.
One trained at Harvard Law School under Milton Katz, a legendary professor in international law who served as deputy chairman of the Commission for European Recovery, later renamed the Marshall Plan. This plan was the biggest and grandest reconstruction effort in all of human history that allowed Europe, especially Germany, to rebuild from the ruins of war.The tie-breaking vote that sealed the termination of the agreement was cast by then-Senate president Jovito R. Salonga, an intellectually gifted man who turned down an offer to teach law at Yale University after obtaining his doctorate there. He returned to serve a country he loved with unwavering passion.Those who voted for termination were prescient enough to see a boom, not gloom and economic doom, from the abrogation of the treaty. With the steadfast belief that 'cutting the umbilical cord with Mother America' would return those giant military facilities to Philippine hands, which would then be turned into engines of economic growth. This, indeed, happened with the transformation of Clark Air Base and Subic Naval Base — then the largest military facilities outside of the continental US — into thriving economic hubs.The proponents of the treaty's extension, also armed with compelling points of view, argued that abrogating the treaty and cutting that proverbial umbilical cord would be an existential threat to both the country's economy and national security — fears that turned out to be unwarranted.Those erudite discussions that took much of the senators' time in 1989, 1990 and 1991 — with the pros and cons argued by the best minds solidly grounded on national security, economics, international law and other related issues — are being recalled today because issues related to our relations with America have resurfaced in the aftermath of Donald Trump's victory in the Nov. 5 presidential elections. The cordial post-bases relationship that has been the anchor of Philippine-American relations since 1991 has been upended by a slew of disruptive executive orders and directives from Trump that cover a broad range of issues, from immigration and foreign aid to the possibility of imposing protective tariffs.The Trumpian plank on immigration is mass deportation, and at least 24 undocumented Filipinos there with criminal records have been sent back to the Philippines. More immigration raids are being conducted across the US, and more Filipinos with little or zero legal protection may be swept up and deported after those operations. While the US is no longer the chief source of foreign aid, the freeze ordered by Trump on the delivery of foreign aid to allies will still impact heavily on many areas of our national security and economy. A Trump order stopped birthright citizenship, which was provided for in Amendment 14 of the US Constitution.The bigger blow to our economy will be Trump's plan to impose a uniform 10-percent tariff on export goods shipped to America except those from Mexico and Canada, which will be slapped 25 percent. Protective tariffs have been rendered passe by time and the globalized trading environment. To be fair, not one country in the world is ready for Trump's resurrection of protective tariffs.The tough task of navigating the policy minefields under Trump's second term is another important reason the brain power and deep grounding on critical issues of the Philippine Senate that dealt with the military bases issue is being recalled today. Except for a few, the current chamber is populated by dumbos and mental lightweights who are totally inadequate to deal with Trump's disruptive and clearly negative executive orders. The public perception is that most senators cannot even process the grievous harm these orders will have on the Philippines and the broader world. Simply because vacuous and hollowed-out brains are not equipped to deal with those grave and nation-changing issues.Brain power, deep grounding on issues and policy expertise of senators, tragically, are precisely required at this critical point because any and all agreements that have something to do with tariffs, bilateral trade agreements and international treaties have to be reviewed and ratified by the senators. Policy responses to the Trumpian initiatives are expected to come mostly from the Senate. The Senate, as constituted now sadly, is severely handicapped, brain power-wise, to craft the policy responses.But that is not all. A greater tragedy awaits the nation after May.After the May elections, if we go by the results of the usually accurate polling, the hollowed-out brains in the Senate will increase exponentially. Most of the survey leaders are clowns and jokers with no policy expertise and a superficial understanding of complex trade issues, the overall Philippine-US relations, and the overall architecture of the global trading arrangements. At this critical juncture when we need policy expertise the most in order to deal with the Trumpian world of tariffs, old-fashioned imperialism and extraction of concessions even from allies, the Senate is at its nadir, intellectually.We can't even say that we have to vote wisely, and we need to vote out the clowns and jokers. The 2024 word of the year is 'brain rot,' and that precisely applies to the level of discernment of our voters.That is the reason some of us, in our moments of desperation, fondly cling to a memory and remember a time when we were dazzled by the brilliance of Salonga et al.
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