SEVERAL of the issues we face as a nation have both national and global dimensions. The recent hacking of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) data involved personal information of some 55 million registered voters. Global security firm Trend Micro was responsible for bringing to light Comelec’s massive data leak. Foreign hackers allegedly perpetrated the laundering of $81 million from the Central Bank of Bangladesh through several Philippine-based casinos and Chinese nationals. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is probing into the biggest cyber heist at Bangladesh’s formal request.
Clearly, some national problems cannot be solved by a country all by itself. For one, it’s inconceivable for us alone to deal with the terrorist threat from Islamic State of Iraq, who announced last December that it considered the Philippines one of its new breeding grounds for jihadists.
We have on our own initiative brought to the United Nations Permanent Court of Arbitration our ongoing maritime dispute with China over the West Philippine Sea. Our invocation of international law and treaty has been backed up by our allies, like the United States, Japan and Australia, and other like-minded countries committed to the international rule of law and treaty obligations.
While the brunt of El Niño-induced heat waves and droughts is experienced locally, scientists have already stated that the overall pattern of climate change—exacerbating these weather stresses—is a human-induced global phenomenon.
Environment Secretary Ramon Paje signed the climate agreement reached in Paris last December, affirming our commitment to reduce carbon emissions by 70 percent before 2030. However, fulfilling this commitment will be meaningless if the other 195 countries who agreed to the Paris accord will not follow their so-called Intended Nationally Determined Contributions.
The sluggishness and slowdown of today’s global economy have started in China and in the developed West. But that does not mean Asean will be immune from its knock-on impact.
The essential point I’m suggesting is that international problems surely require cross-border cooperation for solutions. But even seemingly domestic matters, like tax evasion, drug trafficking and crime, cannot be effectively solved without the assistance and collaboration of friends abroad.
In one word, the nation must foster good relations and mutually beneficial arrangements with other countries to face down some of our biggest internal challenges. And as the official representative of and spokesman to the international community, the next president should be at the forefront of cultivating these good relations.
In diplomacy, what one says weighs as heavily as what one does.
E-mail: angara.ed@gmail.com.