PHILIPPINE FOREIGN POLITICS

1ST LESSON: Diplomatic History

DEFINITION:
 Deals only with the relation between two or more sovereign state

NOTES ON THE CURRENT ISSUES OF PHILIPPHINE DIPLOMATIC HISTORY:

1. Diplomatic history of the Philippines yet to be written.
2. No Filipino has ever written a satisfactory scholarly book.
3. No Filipino are currently making or assisting on the creation of our “own”
diplomatic history:
 The chapter pointed out that the lack of our own diplomatic history should
be a challenged to our historian.
 Filipino’s should be the one writing or studying our own diplomatic
history, because we are in a better position of understanding it.
PROBLEM WITH PHILIPPINE DEMOCRATIC HISTORY
1. The Philippines was sovereign twice on the starting legs of its engagement
on diplomatic practice, 1898-1901 (Liberation from the Spaniards; First
Republic) and 1943-1945 (Protectorate under the US; Second Republic).
2. Historian is in grey area on whether they should only consider diplomatic
history when we were sovereign, regardless whether if we are a de jure or
de facto states at the time, or also includes time frames such as 1521-1898.
3. Colonial Back Drop in Deep Considerations:
 Contention between Spain and Portugal (16th Century).
 Contention between Spain and Netherlands (17th Century).
 Contention between Spain and USA (19th Century).
 Negotiation on the Treaty of Paris

DOMINANT SCHEMA IN PHILIPPHINE DIPLOMATIC HISTORY:

1. Diplomatic History of the Philippine Republic (1965)
 Written by Dr. Milton W. Meyer

CRITICISM WITH IT:

 Lacks credibility since the time of its conception all American-Filipino
historical paper from 1946 and back where still to be declassified by the
US National Archives and not yet available for scholarly usage and
analyzation.
POSSIBLE ENRICHMENT METHODS FOR THE STRUCTURALIZING OF THE
PHILIPPINE DEMOCRATIC HISTORIES ARE:
1. Diplomatic Activities of the Revolutionary Government:
 Malolos Republic (based on the Philippine Insurgent Records)
 The Philippine Insurrection Against the United States (recorded by
Capt. John R.M. Taylor)
 A Chapter of Filipino Diplomacy (Villanueva)
 The Hong Kong Juntas (Dr. Silvano V. Epistola)
 Malolos (Teodora Agoncillo)
 Japan and the Philippines, 1868-1898 (Dr. Josefa M. Saniels)

2. Philippines in American-Japanese Diplomacy:

 Open Door Policy
 Taft-Katsura Memorandum of 1905
 Root-Takahira Agreement of 1908
 Five-Power Treaty 0f 1921
 The Manuel Quezon British Protectorate Request

3. Ordeals of the Philippines (WWII and beyond)

 Pacific War Council
 San Francisco Conference on the United Nations
 Preliminary Conventions and Agreement on American Bases
 Military Bases Agreement of 1947 (MBA)
 Mutual Defense Pact of 1951

4. Philippine – USA Economic Agreements

 Trade Act
 Philippine Rehabilitation Act

5. Philippine – Japanese Agreements

 13-Nation Far Eastern Commission
 San Francisco Conference on the Japanese Peace Treaty in
September 1951 (Inclusion of Japanese Repatriation Payment for
War Damages).

6. Philippines and South East Asian Neighbors

 MAPHILINDO (Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesisa)
 Sabah Incidents

7. Philippine Policies on Cold War Era

 Diplomatic ties on the Socialist Bloc
 Intensified diplomatic ties on oil-rich Arab Country
 Relationship with the European, Third World and Latin American Bloc

8. Biographies:
  Felipe Agoncillo (by Prof. Esteban A. De Ocampo)
 Apolinario Mabini (by Dr. Cesar Adib Majul) – Enshrined as First
Filipino Foreign Affairs (1964)

9. Presidential letters on foreign affairs:

 Quezon
 Osmena
 Roxas
 Quirino
 Magsaysay
 Garcia
 Marcos

10. Other sources:

 Former foreign secretaries of foreign affairs (Romulo).
 Memoirs or autobiographies of foreign affairs secretaries and
diplomats.
 Declassification of DFA library and archives.

2nd LESSON: Foreign Policy

DEFINITIONS:
 Statement of national goals, as limited both absolutely and relatively by national
power.
 The articulation of its fondest needs and aspirations, and in international affairs,
it is its sole weapon for the promotion of national interest.
 Part of the general program of the government. It is further an extension of its
domestic policy.

1. SYSTEM
DEFINTION:
 Set of parts created to accomplish certain objectives.
 Coordination of human efforts and material sources to produce desired
result in a dynamic organization.
ORGANIZATION AS A SOCIAL SYSTEM:
 It has a subsystem and is a part of a supra-systems, in continual
interaction with one another.
 Have definite objectives to accomplish.
 Have an inflow-transformation-outflow cycle of human and
material resources.
 Have performance evaluation measures.
 Management is essential for its operation.
 2. FOREIGN POLICY SYSTEM
DEFINTION:
 Combination of Foreign Policy and System Theory
 Denotes an organization of set or sets of rules to promote national
interest through the conduct of relation with other countries.
STUDY OF PHILIPPINE FOREIGN POLICY SYSTEMS INCLUDES:
 Procedural subsystem
 Substantive subsystem
 Directional subsystem

3. APPROACHES TO FOREIGN POLICY STUDY

PROCEDURAL APPROACH:
 Formulation
 Implementation
 Revaluation
SUBSTANTIVE APPROACH:
 Security
 Economic
 Cultural
DIRECTIONAL APPROACH:
 Bilateral
 Regional
 Multilateral

3RD LESSON: Formulation of Filipino Foreign Policy

1. WHO FORMULATES FILIPINO FOREIGN POLICY?
PRESIDENT:
 Philippine foreign affairs are his/her sole responsibility.
 Can make treaty with the guidance and approval of the senate.
 Implementation of the policy is his/her responsibility.
THE PRESIDENT IS THE CHAIRMAN OF THE FOLLOWING COUNCIL:
 Council of Leaders
 Foreign Policy Council
 General Military Council
 National Security Council
 National Economic and Development Authority
  Special Presidential Reorganization Committee

FIRST LEGAL MANDATE FROM 1935 AND REINSTATED FROM 1973

AND 1987:
 1935 Constitution om Article VII, Section 10 Paragraph 7: The
president shall have the power, with the concurrence of all the
members pf the Senate, to make treaties, and with the consents of
the Commission of Appointments, he shall appoint ambassadors,
other public ministers and consuls. He shall receive ambassadors
and other public ministers duly accredited to the Government of the
Philippines.

2. FORMULATION OF NATIONAL POLICY

AFTER DRAFTING THE PRESIDENT WILL CONSULT WITH:
 The Leadership and Members of the Ruling Party
 The Executive Committee and Cabinet
 The Foreign Policy Council
 The General Military Council
 The National Security Council

3. ROLE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

 To provide necessary information to the President to define policy option for
his decisions.
 To articulate the foreign policy of the country.
 To implement policy decisions through negotiations and other diplomatic
means.

4. PUBLIC PRESSURE GROUPS

 The people’s participation in public policy decisions, including foreign policy,
becomes inevitable and even desirable for the long run. The political parties,
pressure and interest groups, mass media and public opinion in general
bear influence upon the direction of bureaucracy.
THE USUAL VEHICLES FOR THESE ARE:
 Elections
 Lobbying
 Newspaper
 Radio
 Material Inducement
 Non-material inducement
THESE GROUP INFLUENCE THE:
 Appointment or Removal of Personnel.
 Promulgation
 Enforcement or the Non-execution of Public Policies.
  Administrative Orders and Other Decisions Vital to them.

5. FOREIGN POLICY CONSTANTS

IN FORMULATING FPC, THE POLICY MUST BE AWARE OF THE CONSTANT
SITUATION IN THE PHILIPPINES:
 The Philippines is a member of the ASEAN as an economic regional
organization, and in active cooperation of the industrial nations in the
Pacific.
 A developing agricultural and industrial economy and shares economic
interest with the third world nations for a new international economic order.
 Has mineral resources value in industrial as well as developing nations such
as gold, copper, nickle, iron ores, silver, cobalt, chrome and etc.
 Has non-oil based sources of energy such as hydro, geothermal power with
good potentials for oil, natural gas, and uranium.
 That there 100 million+ Filipinos with relatively high degree of literacy.
 Biggest producers of sugar, bananas, copra, rice and pineapples.
 Member of the UN, has minimum obligations for the maintenance of
international peace and security as well as to promote higher standards of
living, full employment and conditions of economic and social progress.

6. FOREGN POLICY VARIABLES

 It has leased parts of its air base in Clark and naval base in Subic for the
United States Military facilities until 1991 for mutual defense for the
maintenance of regional and international peace.
 Dependent on OPEC (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Iraq and Indonesia) and
Non-OPEC (China, Mexico and Malaysia) states for a steady supply of
petroleum.
 Dependent upon US, Japanese and European capital resources for its
economy.
 As members of the World Bank, IMF, UNDP, ADP is entitled to borrow
funds.
 As developing nations, the industrial market of Japan, USA and Europe are
indispensable for its export trade outlet and sources of tourism.
 The Philippines is confronted with foreign-based secessionist terrorist
movement in 10 southern provinces
 Until world disarmament is achieved, the Philippines has an interest to
monitor the activities if Non-Aligned Movement.

7. STAGES OF FILIPINO FOREIGN POLICY-MAKING

PERIOD OF INITIATION (1946-1957)
 Occupied with national reconstruction and rehabilitation.
 Concerned with political issue rather than economy, trade and financial
matters.
 PERIOD OFIMMOBILISME (1957-1965)
 Geopolitics was the main preoccupation instead of economics.
PERIOD OF INNOVATION (1966-1981)
 Said that, Philippine Foreign Policy was to be decided by Filipinos.
 Steps were gradually taken to correct imbalance of our foreign policy
direction.
PERIOD OF INTEGRATION (1981-1991)
 Redirected toward the promotion and expansion of Philippine investment if
Philippine enterprise and the protection of advancement of the interest of
the Filipino migrant workers within the jurisdiction of the mission.
PERIOD OF CONSOLIDATION (1992-TOWARDS)

4TH LESSON: The Analysis of Foreign Policy in Comparative Perspective

DEFINITION:
 An area of inquiry that connects the study of international relations and the
study of domestic policy.
 Serves as a bridge by analyzing the impact of both external and internal
politics in states.

1. COMPARING FOREIGN POLICY

 Uses information to look for understandable patters – across time, space,
and issues – in order to formulate or test explanation of foreign policy.
 Rejects that view that every event is completely unique. Finding patterns is
important to reach the end goal of generally understanding and in increased
capability of prediction.

2. ANALYZING FOREIGN POLICY

TWO BROAD FACTORS OF THEORIES:

 EXTERNAL FACTORS
 How the international system is organized, the characteristic of
contemporary international relations and the action of others.
 INTERNAL FACTORS
 Domestic political system of citizens and groups within the
system, the government organizations, and the individual leaders.

EXTERNAL FACTORS
REALISM
  The theory that proposes that anarchy is the characteristic of the
international environment that makes international politics so
dramatically different from domestic.
 The key concepts of realism, power is military in nature, due to the end
goal of every state to safeguard one’s survival and territorial integrity.
LIBERALISM
 Theories on the distribution of economic wealth as a primary
characteristic that affects states foreign policy.
 Views economic interdependence as the key characteristic of the
international environment that states must consider when they make
foreign policy.
 Increases interdependence among states
NEOLIBERAL FUCNTIONALISM
 States cooperate because of expected mutual benefits, and they
are likely to form multilateral regimes to increase information
certainty, lower transaction cost, and foster mutual gains.
NEOFUCNTIONALISM
 Argues that trade is the most important spark for regional
integration.
CONSTRUCTIVISM
 Sees the international systems as composed of the social interactions of
states and shared understandings in the global community.
 Uses norms to represent shared expectations about appropriate
behavior that derive from a combination of beliefs, standard of behavior,
international conventions, and decision-making procedures.
 View norms as appropriate behavior and socially constructed by the
international structure that constrain states foreign policy.
INTERNAL FACTORS
PUBLIC OPINION, INDENTITY AND CULTURE
 Defined as the attitudes citizen gave about particular foreign policy
issues.
 Often reflects the “core values” or opinion “moods” such as: isolationism,
anticommunism, non-appeasement, neutrality and anti-imperialism.
Core values and national identities are connected to a society’s political
culture.
PROBLEMS:
 The average person tends to know little and care little about the
country’s foreign policy.
  At most the masses get lead on to opinions of politicians that
aligns with theirs.
LINKS AND OPPOSITION
 Leaders when creating foreign policy may tend to favor, pay attention to,
and react to, the opinions of specific, organized societal groups than to
the society at large, as they play the role of linking the society to the state
or of opposing and competing with the state.
TYPES OF SOCIETAL GROUP:
 BUSINESS GROUPS (Impacts wealth generation and economic
welfare)
 POLITICAL PARTIES (Impacts policies)
 FACTIONS (Impacts policies and ideologies on a multiparty
political system)
 MILITARY (Impacts power and national security)
DEMOCRACIES AND BUREAUCRACIES
 Decision making in democracies and bureaucracies tends to be diffused
across democratic institutions and thus more actors are involved.
 Leaders in here are directly accountable than in authoritarian regimes.
 In theory, will behave more peacefully, in terms of foreign policy, due to
the difficulty of building political support among larger set of actors and
mobilizing them for conflict. But evidence fails to prove such as either
authoritarian or democratic regimes can still inflict conflict (WW II)
 Bureaucratic organization handles complex problems but can also cause
problem internally in constructing foreign policy due to difference in
departments involved.
PERSONALITIES AND BELIEFS
 Characteristics of leaders are generally more important when they have
significant latitude in shaping policy and the situations is ambiguous,
uncertain, or complex.
 Leader’s decision may be shaped by their own personal history.
 Decisions may also be characterized by leader’s personality. Some
leaders may be more dominant and incite a more conflictual policy or
some can be more cooperative that will incite a more cooperative policy.