USELESS hyperventilation is the only way to describe the outlandish overreaction of anti-Duterte quarters to the recent signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on “oil and gas development” between Manila and Beijing during the state visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to the Philippines last week.

The overreaction was bizarre and betrayed the tendency of these critics to assume the worst of motivations from the government even on perfunctory matters.