Perhaps today’s youth should watch the movie Midway, which is still showing in theaters as I write this. It vividly narrates how the United States and Japan, battled for control of Midway Atoll—a shambolic, autonomous territory of the US that up to now is the only island in the Hawaiian archipelago that does not belong to the state of Hawaii.
Between June 4 and 7, 1942, roughly six months after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and bullied the Pacific, war planes from aircraft carriers Enterprise, Yorktown and Hornet of the US Navy’s Task Forces 16 and 17 ambushed and sank the mightiest of Japanese Navy’s carrier force. It was one of World War II’s most crucial naval battles that turned the tide in favor of the allied forces. It confounded Japan’s hopes of upending the US as a naval power.
I deem it vital to remind today’s generation about the importance of efficaciously applying intelligence at all levels of war. Even without the aid of today’s high-tech algorithm-based spying gadgets, US Navy intelligence led by Commander Joseph “Joe” Rochefort was able to brilliantly break Japanese codes, unearthing Japan’s ambitious plans to take over the 6.2-square-kilometer Midway Atoll. At the core of the American victory at Midway was how the US Navy intelligence masterfully decoded the enemy’s attack strategy. This enabled the American forces to plan and execute their historic and successful naval trap.
In war, in card games, and in business, keeping plans, intentions, or tactics secret from everyone else—while enemies or competitors search for creative means to discover them—spells the difference between doom or success. It doesn’t need a genius to figure that out.
Now pray tell, why is the Philippine Army defending moves to open up its bases and camps to Chinese government presence through the installation there of a telecommunication company’s cell sites? Nothing to worry about, the Army says, despite warnings from experts that it would pry the country’s military secrets open and leave the country defenseless to spying.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines on September 11, signed a memorandum of agreement with the Mindanao Islamic Telephone Co. (Mislatel), which sanctioned the company’s plan to “build facilities in military camps and installations,” or communication towers within AFP properties. Mislatel, recently renamed “Dito Telecommunity [Dito],” is a syndicate of Filipino businessman Dennis Uy’s holdings firm Udenna Corp. with a 35 percent stake, his listed company Chelsea Logistics with 25 percent, and the Chinese government-owned and -controlled China Telecom with 40 percent.
This development follows a pattern of capitulation to Chinese aggression in the contested West Philippine Seas. Practically all of President Duterte’s men remain convinced that China can be trusted because, as they chorus, China is a friend. But is it really? The world views China as a cunning superpower that uses its wealth and military coercion to debt trap small countries into submission.
Retired Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio was on the dot when he criticized the government’s awarding of rare honors to outgoing Chinese ambassador to the Philippines Zhao Jianhua. The ambassador, who is set to end his post this November, after serving in the Philippines for five years, was recently conferred by Duterte the Order of Sikatuna with the Rank of Datu, and granted by the House of Representatives the Congressional Medal of Achievement. The Order of Sikatuna is usually given to diplomats, officials and nationals of foreign states “who have rendered conspicuous service in fostering, developing and strengthening relations between their country and the Philippines.”
“Our national heroes who died defending our territory against foreign invaders must now be turning in their graves,” Carpio told lawyers in his recent speech at the UP Alumni Homecoming in Pasay City. Carpio is one of the leading experts and staunch defenders of the country’s sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea.
The apprehension felt by many sectors about the lopsided government deals that China seems to be enjoying in the country is understandable.
Not only has the state-owned ChinaTel, through its JV partner Dito Telecommunity, been able to obtain sites from military camps, Chinese President Xi Jinping has struck a deal with the Duterte administration to mutually embark on oil and gas survey in the disputed West Philippine Sea. This means that the Philippines is giving up its favorable arbitral ruling in the area.
There is also the case of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, which has taken in State Grid Corp. of China as one of its principal shareholders. SGCC’s Zhu Guangchao has been named NGCP chair, under whose control rests the corporation’s operation, maintenance and development of our country’s power supply and demand. Even hiring of the people at NGCP has to be cleared with SGCC officials.
In an ABS-CBN interview, maritime law expert Jay Batongbacal said allowing “any form of control… as in…the joint oil exploration with China…may be a sign of giving up sovereign rights.”
Similar to China’s violation of the Philippines’s territorial rights in the West Philippines Sea, the state-owned ChinaTel’s foray into our country’s telecommunications industry through the Dito-ChinaTel’s memorandum of agreement with the AFP is seen as a threat to the Filipinos’ right to privacy and security of data.
Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Alfredo Garbin Jr. has echoed Magdalo Party-list Rep. Manny Cabochan’s position regarding “US, PHL security concerns due to issues of ‘national security,’ both domestically and from the US, on the ambitious digital infrastructure initiative of the country’s third telco player.”
The Philippines should heed the advice of key international
analysts to be wary of entering into business deals with China. These experts
point out that dominance of countries’ businesses and industries—from
telecommunications to infrastructure and finance, etc.—point to a centralized
program of the Chinese Politburo. China wants to be the undisputed global
power, and it will strive to achieve its goal to the detriment of any other
country’s rights.
Our government officials are mandated to put the Filipinos’ sovereign rights and freedoms first before their personal gains and any foreign country’s interests. Why are they now kowtowing to China’s trap of geopolitical dominance?
For comments and suggestions, e-mail me at mvala.v@gmail.com