1947: The Philippines, UN, and Palestine partition

As I was doing research on the Palestine and Israel conflict, I shared a link to a podcast in Tagalog and Taglish explaning the situation hosted by Howie Severino. In the episode, University of the Philippines professor Herman Kraft explained that the Philippines voted yes to the Palestine partition, or split, into Palestine and Israel at the United Nations.

Soon after I posted the link, James Enriquez shared a comment to the post, indicating that the Philippines’ initial stance was to preserve Palestine’s borders, meaning a no vote for the partition in 1947.

Carlos P. Romulo, the then Philippines delegate to the UN, said, “…The Philippine Government has come to the conclusion that it cannot give its support to any proposal for the political disunion and the territorial dismemberment of Palestine.”

He added, “The issue is whether the United Nations should accept responsibility for the enforcement of a policy which… is clearly repugnant to the valid nationalist aspirations of the people of Palestine.”

He then referred to a bill during the American colonial period in the Philippines, that proposed the separation of Mindanao from the rest of the country. It turned out, the goal of the bill (the Bacon Bill) was to allow American companies to freely enter Mindanao and use it for rubber production. The bill was fought by Philippine representatives and obviously, never passed.

Romulo then adds, “Today our people in the Philippines, both Christian and Mohammedan, regard themselves, without distinction, as Filipinos, owing allegiance to a common flag and constitution, living and working under the aegis of a national government in which they are represented and hold office without distinction as to race, sex; language or religion.”

Before he ended his remarks, he also conveyed his understanding of the plight of the Jewish diaspora due to on-going European exile particularly during the height of Nazi power. He said, “During the first dispersal of the Jews from Hitlerite Germany, the Philippines was among the very few countries that opened their doors to Jewish refugees and extended to them cordial welcome. We gave them a haven in our country, we accepted them among us, and today they live and work with us in complete harmony and understanding.” This is in reference to the admission of more than 1,000 Jewish refugees to the Philippines, fleeing areas taken over by Germany and Japan during the late 1930s. There’s also a movie about it called “Quezon’s Game.”

Romulo ended his statement with, “…The Philippines regrets its inability to approve of or to participate in a solution of the Palestine problem that would involve the encouragement of political disunion and the enforcement of measures that would amount to the territorial mutilation of the Holy Land.”

Despite his remarks, then Philippine President Manuel Roxas, asked Romulo to reverse his decision, basing it on fears of retaliation from US congress. Then Acting Secretary of State Robert Lovett wrote, “President Roxas stated that he had instructed the Philippine Delegation to change its position and vote in favor of partition because of his fear, based on a report from Ambassador Elizalde and a telegram from some ten United States Senators, that a vote against partition would have an adverse effect on United States-Philippine relations.”

After the vote, a war occurred between Palestine and the new state of Israel, after which Israel occupied more than 70% of Palestine by 1948. Blood continued to be shed between the two peoples, to this day.