Filipino-Chinese biz group says PH-China ties remain strong
National flags of the Philippines and China. FILE / STOCK
On June 29 this year, the Philippines will again celebrate Filipino-Chinese Friendship Day.
Commemorating friendly relations between the Philippines and China, this commemoration started with the issuance of Proclamation No. 148 by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2002.
Beyond this partnership between two nations, friendship has been nurtured by people, not nations.
This is the key to a partnership that has lasted through generations.
This is the collective sense felt when some Filipino and Chinese leaders and scholars volunteered their views on this relationship — present and future.
“For as long as people are willing to talk and listen to each other, all conflicts can be resolved,” said former senator Nikki Coseteng, who has Chinese ancestry.
In his presentation at the same forum as Coseteng; Dr. Rommel Banlaoi, a political scientist and noted Sinologist, addressed the current dispute in the
West Philippines Sea.
“That sea was not the sea that separated our two nations,” he said.
“It was, in fact, the sea that made our two peoples closer through centuries,” he added.
Business leader John Y. Gaisano of the Gaisano Group of enterprises who once served as the president of the Davao chapter of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) also attended the forun.
“We, Chinese and Filipinos have been working together very well simply by focusing on areas that unite us, not those that divide us,” Gaisano said.
Dela Salle University Professor Meah Ang See expressed confidence that Filipino-Chinese relations will remain strong.
She said during the American occupation, Tsinoys were limited to the business of merchandising.
Dr. Cecilio Pedro, the current president of the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Inc. (FFCCCII), said the federation is helping strengthen the two people’s friendship.
“Since we cannot engage in diplomacy the way the government can, we follow a people-to-people approach,” Pedo said.
The FFCCCII conducts, among a slew of activities, free seminars and workshops that promote the growth of entrepreneurship focused on micro, small and medium enterprise.
The country’s past, according to Dr. Banlaoi, is one of the major sources of anti-Chinese sentiment. “We inherited the pejorative view of the Spanish, Americans and Japanese against the Chinese,” he said.
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