Miyerkules, Agosto 24, 2016

Duterte’s political jujitsu between China and Japan


By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Had the shrewd Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte outwitted the Japanese in their own game “Jujitsu” by using the Philippines' weakness against bully’s Mainland China into a strength at the expense of the Nippon-koku?
Image result for japan f-16
Some of these Mitsubishi made F-2A multi-role (based on a Lockheed Martin F-16 variant)
 of the Japanese Air Force where it has 64 on its hangar could be donated or lease to the poorly
equipped Philippine Airs Force.
Japan wants to replace its F-16s and F-15s by ordering 5th Generation 42 stealth and
 multi-role F-35 Lightning II 
from the U.S.
Jujitso is defined by Dictionary.com as a method developed in Japan of defending oneself without the use of weapons by using the strength and weight of an adversary to disable him.
As you know Duterte declared in the past that he would ask China to finance a multi -billion pesos railway systems in Mindanao and in Luzon.
“I will tell China, do not claim ownership and I will not mention patrimony, hayaan natin muna iyan, gusto mo let’s set that aside, you might want trade exploration,” he said, referring to China.
I will just ask you to build a rail, just like what you did for Africa,” he continued”
He exhorted the Chinese to just build a  high-speed railway just like the line project of the Kenya Railways Corporation, which has cut travel time from Nairobi to Mombasa from 13 to three hours.
When I heard him declared this statement, I posed to myself:
“Would the United States or Japan allow this China funding?”
Son of a gun, a healthy relationship between the Philippines and China would be, well, unhealthy to Japan as the Banzai country relies on the five trillion dollar a year trade lanes in the South China Sea (SCS) where Japanese tankers and cargo ships traverse.
What happen if a shooting war between the Chinese and the Japanese erupt at the disputed Senkaku or Diaoyu Islets that both countries passionately claimed?” I again posed to myself  since I could not asked somebody since I was alone in my room.
Gee whiz, Chinese subs, ships, and jets would start blasting with their weaponry the commercial cargo ships of the Japanese plying the SCS.
It’s dé·jà vu German U-Boats versus the ships of the Yanks and the Brits at the English Channel.
This ambushed at the SCS would surely paralyze the Japanese economy.
Before I could hear an answer from some geo-political experts, Masato Ohtaka, deputy press secretary for Japan's foreign ministry, said recently that Japan was willing to bankroll one of the biggest loans it could lent through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Excerpts of abs-cbn.com report that was posted last August 12:
“Japan on Friday announced it is pouring a massive $2.4 billion into a new railway in the Philippines aimed at easing Manila's notorious gridlock. Japan, Philippines' top trading partner and source of aid, said the 38-kilometer (24-mile) elevated commuter line would connect Manila to nearby Bulacan province to decongest the capital and help spur economic activity. This is one of the biggest projects Japan has ever embarked upon using the yen loan," Masato Ohtaka, deputy press secretary for Japan's foreign ministry, told reporters in Manila.
"Railways are one of our fortes ... We sympathize with the Filipinos that this is a project that needs to be done very, very quickly."
“Ohtaka said Japan was also open to building a railway in the southern region of Mindanao, a project Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte had previously said China offered to fund. Manila's traffic problems cost the Philippines an estimated $64 million a day in 2015, a Japanese-funded study found”.