West Philippine Sea conundrum

Last week, the West Philippine Sea was again headline chatter on the front pages, social media chat groups, television and radio, and the subject of commentary by various kibitzers. The WPS issue between China and the Philippines is a continuing conundrum akin to a festering boil that is constantly irritated. It could either go away on its own as the body’s natural healing power evicts the underlying pus or it could signal the start of a more ominous and dreaded disease like cancer.

What happened that triggered the recent brouhaha? As we all know by now unless you have been living under a rock, it was a comedy of errors for the Chinese, a humiliating faux pas that was wisely recorded by our Navy for the whole world to see.

Two Chinese vessels in pursuit of the Philippine Coast Guard’s much smaller BRP Suluan collided with each other at Bajo de Masinloc when they tried to trap the PCG vessel which took evasive action. Pretty much like Scotty Thompson zigzagging toward the basket while doing an acrobatic Eurostep to avoid an onrushing, menacing Yao Ming as Scotty stretched for a dunk!

The video clearly showed the China Coast Guard cutter, in broad daylight, with its water cannon fiercely spewing gallons of water in pursuit of the Suluan, colliding with the People’s Liberation Army Navy destroyer, in the process smashing its bow into the side of the destroyer and rendering it no longer sea worthy and quite possibly causing injury, if not loss of lives, to its crew.

Given China’s penchant for creative, embellished denials to avoid loss of face, I wouldn’t be surprised if China would proudly proclaim the collision happened as its crew bravely risked, even sacrificed their lives, to ensure the Philippine vessel would not be struck.

The incident that showed to the world the increasingly aggressive tendencies of China as it tries to assert its might on us, ignoring the growing clamor of condemnation from the free world, clearly signals a dangerous step up in provocations that could very easily stumble into armed conflict.

Already, there were reports shortly after the Masinloc incident that a Chinese jet fighter had intercepted and flown dangerously close to a PCG patrol plane. The next time around, our military personnel may not be so fortunate as to evade an actual tit-for-tat bloody confrontation, deliberate or not, that could inadvertently trigger a military response from the US, our Mutual Defense Treaty ally.

In such an unfortunate Armageddon-like scenario, we will unquestionably be in the frontline of an unimaginable conflict. The big question is, how do we avoid this from happening? And if it should come to fruition, how do we prepare?

These facts are clear. We definitely do not have the military capability to match up with China. So resorting to a call to arms is not the way to go, but we do have the Mutual Defense Treaty with the US that provides us a semblance of equal might in this Game of Thrones with China that could keep China off balance.

We cannot and should not be perceived as simply a pawn of the US. A righteous posture by invoking our lawful rights under UNCLOS will win the approval of other countries and already we have France, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom lined up as formidable allies.

China, disregarding our rights, will condemn it to being a pariah in the eyes of the world, which China loathes. The government is on the right track by continuously publicizing the overt bullying of China. Our people should be constantly made aware that our rights as a freedom-loving nation are being trampled upon. The government should appeal to our sense of civic responsibility and patriotism to help in any way we can.

A clear example of this help is the ongoing initiative of the P&A accounting firm and the Rotary Club of Makati to provide material support such as food, medical supplies, generators, and internet facilities to the 300 or so residents and handful of military personnel on Pag-Asa Island, a remote outpost in the WPS, that vividly demonstrates our nation’s determination to keep our flag flying proudly in our waters.

Until next week… OBF!