Snub or Noynoy blew it?

Editorial

China may have given Noynoy its strongest statement yet on the raging territorial conflict with the Philippines through the apparent snub on the holding of a bilateral dialog between Noynoy and Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario had to make an excuse about Noynoy and Hu not being able to squeeze in a schedule for a one-on-one talk during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Summit in Vladivostok, Russia.

It wasn’t clear from Del Rosario from whose side “time ran out” for the holding of the crucial meeting to be aborted.

Considering that most of the activities in the annual Apec even are social calls and photo opportunities, it would be doubtful that both heads of state could not squeeze in a moment during the whole two days of the Leader’s Summit to talk.

Noynoy apparently was hot on the heels of Hu and his aides made this meeting a priority, but the Chinese leader chose to keep himself scarce for Noynoy.

In contrast, it seems that Noynoy and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton always appear to bump at each other and have one laugh or two during customary photo events which seems to be the only highlight of the Vladivostok Summit — at least for Noynoy, who is clearly not being counted on by other governments as an influential voice in Asia-Pacific, or even in Asean.

Hu, nevertheless, found the time to talk to Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang and some state officials of other rivals in its many territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

Del Rosario in effect was saying that Noynoy used up all his time being intimate with Clinton who pitched in for US President Barack Obama who in turn, is busy campaigning for another four-year term in the runup to the November presidential polls in the United States and thus ran out of time for Hu in stating the alibi about the scheduling of the dialog.

When Noynoy flew to Russia for the summit, the meeting with Hu was obviously at the top of the agenda, with Del Rosario even saying that all was ready except for the exact time that it would be held.

Malacañang had reported that for the two-day Apec event, Noynoy and his entourage spent P15 million (for a two-day trip which amounts to an excessive P7.5 million a day) which can be considered among the most wasteful use of government funds of the trips that Noynoy had thus far taken since he failed to achieve the one engagement that would have made the Vladivostok trip worth going to and that was the meeting with Hu.

It may not even a total snub from Hu that threw off the scheduled dialog since Noynoy is known for standing up people he does not agree with or worse was if Noynoy had failed to suit up at the appointed time of the meeting which is also his trademark.

“There was not enough time,” however, was not a valid and transparent reason to give the public on Noynoy missing the golden opportunity of smoothening relations with China. It would be either that Hu had snubbed the meeting or Noynoy had called it off, a supposed meeting which the public had to shell out millions for the trip. There is doubt though that it was Noynoy who called off the meeting.

The so-called achievement from the presidential trips is always the line used whenever Malacañang reports about the spendings on Noynoy’s overseas trips. This to the public would be necessary in its need to know.

A snub from Hu means a deeper problem with China than what has been perceived since China has been known before to have actively sought a bilateral dialog with Noynoy on the South China Sea rift.

A bigger problem for Filipinos is if Noynoy threw away the chance for the meeting for whatever reasons he had.

Either way, the nation came out a big loser from the missed dialog with the Chinese leader.