I
THE ROAD TO FRIENDSHIP: THE SIGNING OF THE PHILIPPINES-FRANCE TREATY OF FRIENDSHIP
After the opening of the consulate in 1836, the second milestone
in the long relation between Philippines and France was the Treaty of Friendship drawn between the two countries, signed on 26 June 1947 in Paris. Less than a year after the Philippines’ second independence on 4 July 1946, its former colonizer, the United States,1 was the first Western state to establish full diplomatic relations with Manila, on 13 March 1947. France, surprisingly, was the second, preceding Italy on July 9, and even its other former colonizer, Spain, on September 27.2 But the road to the signing of the Treaty of Friendship was not a smooth one. When first proposed in the early months of 1947 to France’s envoy to Manila Gaston Willoquet by Vice President and Secretary of Foreign Affairs Elpidio Quirino, the initial reaction from the Quai d’Orsay was not a favorable one. Largely stemming from the Philippines’ anti-colonialist position in the United Nations, French foreign ministry officials—referencing the French Indochinese colonies—did not “see the point of such a treaty, unless it comes with some sort of political agreement, namely on colonial issues, as it seems the Philippines does not seem to share our views on the matter (see its votes in New York).”3 The French officials were also worried how the United States would react to France signing the treaty. “Furthermore, our interests in the Philippines do not seem to be sufficiently important to justify such a general gesture, which could be seen in a bad light by the United States, given their almost absolute de facto control over the Philippine Islands.”4 However, Willoquet successfully convinced the Quai d’Orsay stating that France stands to gain by negotiating a treaty of friendship with the Philippines. Citing that China, Great Britain and Italy were all negotiating similar treaties with the Philippines, France would lose out on future economic relations and commercial agreements if 195
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