West Philippine Sea conundrum

The progressively escalating aggressive actions of China in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) capped by last week’s brazen terroristic bullying and the shocking savagery of the unprovoked one-sided clash between Chinese coast guardsmen armed with bolos and knives and our vastly outnumbered unarmed Philippine Navy personnel on a resupply mission to the BRP Sierra Madre, our lonely, slowly decaying symbol of sovereignty in the WPS, have raised considerably the temperature of the dispute.

Unquestionably, this recent incident has triggered widespread howls of protests from typically blase private corporations and business organizations not usually keen on publicly speaking out on political issues for fear of rocking the boat with business counterparts who might be offended. Clear evidence of this is the unprecedented recent publication of concern and support for our armed forces from no less than 17 organizations representing Philippine industry.

Perhaps more significantly, I believe this violent incident has stirred from slumber the usually apathetic, ordinary Juan de la Cruz to the political goings-on, much less the geo-political maneuverings of distant superpowers, and has awakened heretofore simmering sentiments, resulting in a more visible public demonstration of indignation for the insult and affront to our national dignity and pride by China.

Aggravating this potentially explosive scenario are the highly publicized crimes and shenanigans of Chinese nationals in our own backyard by illegal POGO operators; the apparently fake Pinoys who are now illegitimately well-placed local government officials; the segregated exclusively Chinese domains; the arrogant and inappropriate behavior of Chinese nationals in various villages and condominiums; and the violent crimes of murder, kidnapping and human trafficking committed by syndicates focused on their fellow Chinese nationals.

There is even a growing fear that sleeper Chinese military units are already in key locations in our country, reminiscent of the pre-war Japanese strategy preceding the eruption of armed conflict during WWII. Social media chat groups, broadsheet columnists, and cable talk shows are replete with commentaries on the heightening tensions.

As a consequence of these real or imagined fears, the specter of an emerging possible populist racist backlash is real and is unfortunate considering our country’s deep historical blood ties and significant economic relationship with China. Any untoward incidents directed at Chinese nationals may just provide an excuse and provoke a much more aggressive intervention by China.

On the international front, the numerous countries calling for condemnation of China’s provocations — particularly powerful freedom-loving democratic states aligned with the US that do not condone forcible undemocratic means for achieving a political agenda — have publicly pledged support for the Philippines. These are Germany, France, Canada, Japan, Australia and, of course, the US, which has a mutual defense treaty with us. These developments are definitely welcome news for us given our lopsided disadvantage against China.

Given this conundrum in the West Philippine Sea, the question begging for an answer is: what do we do going forward? It is sure as day, the provocations will continue and could even get worse. Although there is now a clamor for beefing up our military capabilities, no matter how many resources we pour into the military the reality is there is no way we can credibly match up against China even with our allies in the event of hostilities. We will just end up being a battleground just like Ukraine.

Aggravating this potentially explosive scenario are the highly publicized crimes and shenanigans of Chinese nationals in our own backyard.

So do we just belly up and enjoy the sc…w? I don’t think so. Filipino pride will never allow that to happen and any politician who espouses such an approach will definitely be booted out. The previous administration tried that carrot approach and all we got was the short end of the stick as China built airfields and military installations and continued to harass our fisherfolk.

To the credit of the current administration — although precarious because any misstep could spell disaster — I believe it has taken the right approach of vigorously confronting diplomatically while loudly publicizing to the world, with well-documented videos and pictures, China’s transgressions.

Justice Antonio Carpio in a recent Finex membership meeting had a similar idea to focus on world opinion while still exploring legal options but coupled with a visible military complementation composed of declared allies as our navy continues to keep alive the Sierra Madre.

Until next week… OBF!

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