By Farah G. Decano

 

“FILIPINOS do not yield.”

I stand with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as regards his position regarding the West Philippine Sea dispute. He does not appear to be China’s lap dog.  While the Asian giant seems to be flexing its power over our relatively puny country, the president continues to show an undaunted front.

His courage to speak up against China is a refreshing boost to our Filipino identity. For six years under President Rodrigo Duterte, our supposed weakness against Chinese militia had been shoved down our throats.  Trolls, alleged to be state-funded, were all over the internet.  They were rampant. They were rabid. They campaigned online and repeatedly posted in unison that our country is no match against China and that we should not provoke the Red Dragon.

It appears that China was getting comfortable with the present helplessness of the Philippines that it recently tried to duplicate its offensive acts in South Korea.  Some vessels identified with China were captured by the government of South Korea when the former’s boats were caught exploiting the areas over which the latter country has exclusive rights.

The Red Dragon has gotten used to disrespecting exclusive economic zones of other countries.  The international community must peacefully stop  the aggression and provocative acts of China.

It is sad that our country does not have similar might as South Korea. We cannot capture erring vessels desecrating our sovereign rights.  We could only console ourselves with a president who is brave   to say  “no” to the powerful Xi.  So far, President Marcos’ stance seems to have gained the popular support of many nations.

There is a price, however, for this unwavering principled stand of an outspoken President.  If China cannot win the Philippine leader, perhaps, it can win some Filipinos and surreptitiously turn them into modern makapilis.  Some readers of Art Samaniegio Jr.’s recent   Facebook post cannot help but formulate that theory.  According to the post, there is an ongoing online recruitment by militarymedia.group of “consultants” who must have at least one year of military exposure.  Curious about the origins of this group, he contacted the more famous militarymedia.com and asked if it was in any way connected to militarymedia.group.  The former denied relations with the latter.  Mr. Samaniego later found out that this group has Chinese origins.  He also discovered that another janesgroup.work has the same provenance.  They recruit Filipinos in order to do military defense research.  If the suspicion of Mr. Samaniego’s post is correct, then this should raise an alarm for our government.  Many of our present and retired military men may become unwitting accomplices of a country that apparently has no respect for Filipinos.

By the way, Mr. Samaniego’s post cannot be disregarded as merely a product of his imagination.   He is a columnist of a popular national daily and an expert on Internet and Technology.  He is a Google-certified IT support specialist, IBM-certified Cybersecurity Analyst and an ISO/IEC 27001 Certified Information Security associate.   He probably won’t risk his reputation for some unverified claims.

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I was reading an online story about a wife who separated from her husband in order to wed her colleague.  She said there was spark from the moment they shook hands and so she quickly decided to divorce her spouse.  I cannot help but be confused as I was skimming through the article.  She claimed that she divorced her husband of ten years because her marriage to them was no longer working.  They took it in a stride and agreed to just part ways.  

I had to reread the article because I thought I must have missed out on the subject. Who are they? Who are them in this story?  Then I remembered that nowadays pronouns are no longer limited to one’s sex assignment at birth.  Some of the time, those who prefer the gender-neutral pronoun “they” are members of the LGBT plus community.    

Frankly, this so-called inclusive way of writing/speaking is befuddling for many.  Can someone just invent a set of  pronouns for members of the LGBT?  It is easier that way than to revise the basic rules of grammar.

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