It is sad and heartbreaking to see that parts of our country’s territories in the West Philippine Sea are being gobbled up by Beijing with nary a whimper from our government.
I shudder in shame that our neighbors, Vietnam and Indonesia, would have the guts to stand up to Beijing’s illegal occupation of what is clearly and patently illegal based on the Hague-based ruling which invalidated Beijing’s claim to the entire West Philippine Sea.
But what can we expect from the Commander in Chief who has no respect for the Philippine Constitution which he has sworn to uphold?
Sometime in June last year, he had said that the “Constitution is worthless to him.” In his speech at the Presidential Security Group’s 120th founding anniversary, Duterte implied that he will disregard the Constitution “to protect the Filipino people.”
Time and again, in his almost three-year reign, President Duterte has shown his preference for shortcuts, undermining the rule of law to get what he wants. The extra-judicial killing of those suspected to be involved in drugs, the jailing of his fiercest critic, Sen. Leila M. de Lima, the unconstitutional ouster of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes A. Sereno, among many other acts not in consonance with justice and fair play.
But his acquiescence to China confirms what many of his critics are saying all along. He doesn’t have what it takes to be a true leader. He has dismissed suggestions from experts to at least assert our rights—through diplomatic channels and international pressure—to these islands which China has so far occupied and militarized.
Saying that war is the only option that he is not wont to wage against a military giant exposes his myopic view and limited understanding of skillful diplomacy. Acting Supreme Court Justice Antonio T. Carpio has been urging the Philippine government to formally protest China’s deployment of bomber aircraft in the West Philippine Sea, saying that failure to do so is just like giving China the blessing to further militarize the region.
That China broke its vow to Duterte that it will not militarize its occupied islands should have already convinced the President that Beijing cannot be trusted as a friend. The People’s Liberation Army Air Force recently taxied a H-6K long range bomber, capable of carrying nuclear-armed cruise missiles, on Woody Island. It is China’s largest garrison on the Paracel Islands.
Carpio warned that Beijing’s bomber could also land and take-off from any of its “big three” islands in the Spratly group—Mischief Reef, Subi Reef and Fiery Cross Reef, which are all within the Kalayaan Island Group.
Duterte, by his action, makes him the most serious threat to Philippine national security. In exchange for massive and expensive loans from China to fund his “Build, Build, Build” program, he has effectively surrendered the country’s sovereignty to China without the latter firing a single shot. His action has emboldened the onslaught of Chinese mainlanders into the country causing property price upsurge. God knows what these Chinese will do next once they have comfortably settled here. Are they sleepers? Are they documented?
He is in fact defending China’s action and mobilizing government agencies “to shoot down” those who have flagged Beijing’s aggressive action. This prompted Carpio, former Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario and former Rep. Roilo Golez to suggest that the Philippines asserts its sovereignty over the Spratlys in a diplomatic but firm manner.
Undeniably, China’s brazen landing of nuclear-capable bombers on an island in the disputed South China Sea is a show of force to reinforce its territorial claims while the other weaker claimants are divided and the US being preoccupied by North Korea.
Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, says the unabetted stockpile of military assets in the occupied islands—believed to have significant oil and natural gas deposits—allows China to “influence its weaker neighbors in peacetime.”
She says: “Through the use of a large number of law enforcement ships, for example, it can pressure Vietnam and the Philippines not to unilaterally extract energy in waters that China claims jurisdictional rights. In wartime, China’s military assets on these islands will increase the risk to the US of intervening militarily.”
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development estimates that roughly 80 percent of global trade by volume and 70 percent by value is transported by sea. Of that volume, 60 percent of maritime trade passes through Asia, with the West Philippine Sea carrying an estimated one-third of global shipping.
The high intensity of commercial goods passing through the tapered Strait of Malacca is worrisome because of its weakness as a tactical chokepoint. It is claimed that some $5.3 trillion worth of goods journeys through the South China Sea annually, with $1.2 trillion of that total accounting for trade with the US.
What is disconcerting is that China could create an air defense detection post to monitor movements into its claimed “sovereign airspace.” It already did in the East China Sea in 2013 amid a dispute over the Senkaku Islands with Japan. Beijing could also establish a base for nuclear submarines as the deep waters around the Spratlys afford it a suitable camouflage.
The Philippines, which sought and won the Hague-based ruling, should have been at the forefront of assertive diplomacy in which its Asean neighbors could make as a rallying point to put international pressure on China’s aggressive stance. But Duterte’s “friendship” and its appeasement to China has made it all too difficult to muster international support.
For comments and suggestions, e-mail me at mvala.v@gmail.com