THE hope of mending relations with China cannot be left to die with the man who uttered these words to my brother, our President, at the ASEAN-China Summit in Cambodia last year:
“What we have in common far outweighs our differences.”
Indeed, former Premier Li Keqiang was a friend of the Philippines who shall be missed.
The lens of history, if not Premier Li’s words, should motivate both China and the Philippines to work towards the peaceful and fair settlement of issues in the West Philippines Sea.
Perhaps few Filipinos now remember that the diplomatic relations my father President Ferdinand E. Marcos established with Chairman Mao Zedong in 1974 laid down just such a modus vivendi that both contained a local communist insurgency and initiated an invaluable friendship w our neighbor china.
All ideological differences were set aside in the interest of the more urgent concern of peace.
”As Asians we should endeavor, thru our uniquely Asian ways so well understood by Premier li, to overcome our differences and instead share a future of development and peace,” Senator Imee Marcos said.
He was a true friend of the Philippine and shall be missed.
