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?
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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.
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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”.
