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Alejano says Duterte’s ‘Build, Build, Build’ is part of Xi’s ‘Belt and Road’


Magdalo party-list Representative Gary Alejano believes that the Duterte administration's "Build, Build, Build" infrastructure program is part of China's Belt and Road Initiative in its campaign to achieve global dominance by 2049.

Alejano made the remark on Thursday following Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to the Philippines, which saw the signing of 29 deals including the memorandum of understanding on oil and gas development and cooperation on some infrastructure projects.

"Ako [ay] naniniwala na yung Build, Build, Build na polisiya ng Duterte administration, right from the start, is really designed to connect to the Belt and Road Initiative ng China," Alejano told reporters in a media forum in Quezon City.

According to Alejano, Duterte already saw the need to join China's Belt and Road Initiative even before he assumed position in 2016.

"So nung siya ay umupo, and this is publicly admitted by the Duterte administration, that they see the United States as a declining power and China is a rising power," Alejano said.

The Belt and Road Initiative, also known as the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative, was proposed by China in 2013 seeking to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes.

But Alejano said China was only using the Belt and Road Initiative, supposedly to provide economic development to other countries, in order to achieve global dominance.

"Kunwari nagbibigay ng suporta pero the main reason of that is to link these countries to China and to pull them into their own influence and thereby removing them from their competition which is the United States," he said.

"This is the power struggle between the United States and China. United States, being an established power, challenged by a rising power, China. Nagkataon lang na yung Pilipinas, nandun sa gitna," he added.

Through all these, Alejano lamented how the Philippine government seems to be silent as China continuously carries on with its actions in the country.

"Nakakalungkot na maririnig natin ang leaders ng bansa, especially the President, na magsasabi na we cannot defend ourselves," he said.

"Yan yun mindset na talunan na tayo. You are announcing to the whole world that we Filipinos are not capable of defending ourselves and therefore you come to the Philippines and you abuse us anytime, it will never complain," he added.

Alejano pointed out that Duterte should be the first one to organize the public to rally against China's actions.

"The President should be the first one to inspire the Filipino people, to rally the Filipino people, to unite the Filipino people," he said. —NB, GMA News

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