The landmark 2016 arbitral ruling on the West Philippine Sea will be observing its 10th anniversary this July, with senior military officials and security experts warning that the country is already facing a “political and informational war” marked by cyberattacks, disinformation, and foreign influence operations tied to tensions in the disputed waters. 

The warnings came during a forum organized by Stratbase Institute and Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung on AFP modernization, where the experts urged expanding military modernization beyond traditional weapons platforms to include cyber defense, intelligence, strategic communications, and cognitive warfare capabilities.

AFP chief of staff Gen. Romeo Brawner, through his acting deputy chief of staff Lt. Gen. Arvin Lagamon, said in his keynote address that the Philippines must adopt a mindset that “we are already at war. Not yet a kinetic war, but the political war, the economic war, and more importantly, the cyber and informational war are already going on,” Lagamon said. 

Constant bullying

He noted that the Philippines continued to confront China’s “daily illegal, coercive, aggressive, deceptive, destructive, and bullying” activities in the West Philippine Sea, alongside “their use of sharp power through their United Front Works and their malign information and foreign influence information.” 

 His remarks echoed growing concern over the role of disinformation and cognitive warfare in the country’s maritime dispute with China, which continues to dismiss the 2016 arbitral ruling that invalidated its sweeping claims over the South China Sea. 

“Every day, efforts to undermine and discredit the ruling persist,” Stratbase president Victor Andres “Dindo” Manhit said.

“In recent years, the country has faced sustained asymmetric gray zone challenges across multiple domains: Water cannons and ramming incidents in the maritime space, dangerous maneuvers and flares in the airspace, and information warfare in the digital domain.”