📷 Spot.ph
FOR the longest time, a long list of past and present superpowers – Spain, Japan, United States, and now China, yearned for a place like the Philippines amid its strategic location and an abundance in natural resources, not to mention its archipelagic land formation and seas surrounding the tropical country.
Revisiting documented incidents since the 15th century, the Philippines went against foreign aggressors only to lose independence for which the country became a colony of Spain for no less than 300 years.
Afterwhich, the Americans bought the Philippines for $50,000 and took over the country in the early 1900. During this time, Filipinos fought but fell short of trouncing the new colonizer – until Japan went on a rampage sometime in 1941 – and snatched control of the Philippines by force via a simultaneous invasion of the countries in Asia.
In 1945, the United States bounced back and defeated Japan. Moving forward, the Philippines gained independence a year after.
The Land of Temptation
What’s in the Philippines that makes these superpowers colonize the Philippines? Hundreds of years ago, the colonizers were just interested in securing a steady supply of spices which could only be found in a tropical country like the Philippines.
When the Americans came, they found the Philippines a strategic spot to annex its military prowess. True enough, the US managed to establish its military facilities in the Pacific, with the Philippines as host country.
After the Philippine Senate rejected an extended stay of the US military installations in the Philippines during the (Corazon) Aquino administration, China slowly annexed its territory via the South China Sea.
Interestingly, the territorial claim went as far as claiming a maritime region well within the 200-nautical mile Philippine Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) which is now referred to as the West Philippine Sea by virtue of a law signed under (Noynoy) Aquino administration.
When the Philippine government resisted the presence of Chinese vessels inside its EEZ, tension between China and the Philippines started.
For the last 12 years, Philippines and China are entangled in a territorial conflict, for which a case was elevated in the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which ruled to invalidate China’s claim via a map referred to as Nine-Dash line.
Strategic Military Bases
But even after a decision was rendered, China refused to recognize the PCA ruling and went on to maintain its presence in the West Philippine Sea where it managed to make seven artificial islands where infrastructures which look more like military installations were constructed.
In data provided by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), satellite images showed China has already built multiple artificial islands atop reefs in the Spratly archipelago, constructing “unsinkable carriers” with air defenses, strategic runways and long-range radar installations.
The AMTI particularly cited Chinese infrastructures in the Paracel Islands where it built 20 outposts, military installations in Calderon Reef, Kagitingan Reef, Burgos Reefs, McKennan Reef, Mabili Reef, Panganiban Reef, Zamora Reef and the Subi Reef – all of which are located well within the 200-nautical mile Philippine Exclusive Economic Zone.
It also controls Scarborough Shoal, which it seized in 2012, via a constant coast guard presence, though it has not built any facilities on the feature.
Since 2013, China has engaged in unprecedented dredging and artificial island-building in the Spratlys, creating 3,200 acres of new land, along with a substantial expansion of its presence in the Paracels.
Sabina Shoal would have been reclaimed too if not for the vigilance of Filipino fishermen who reported the presence of Chinese vessels in what is by far the closest to the Philippines’ home islands yet.
Detailed Chinese Infra
Taking cues from the speech delivered by retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, the West Philippine Sea has literally been transformed into a Chinese bailiwick, citing details of what the disputed maritime region looks like.
Carpio said China reclaimed seven geologic features in the Spratlys from December 2013 to October 2015. Four of these seven geologic features are high-tide features and three are low-tide features.
He also claimed that Subi Reef, which is supposedly under water during its natural state, has already been transformed into a 394-hectare artificial island. The Hague arbitral tribunal ruled that Subi Reef is within the territorial sea of the Municipality of Pagasa in Palawan Province.
“Under international law, only the coastal state, in this case the Philippines, has the sovereign right to create an artificial island in Subi Reef, which to repeat is within the territorial sea of Pagasa. Consequently, China’s artificial island in Subi Reef is illegal as its construction violates international law,” Carpio stressed.
He likewise mentioned Mischief Reef, which was reclaimed by China and has become a 558-hectare artificial island. Mischief Reef is within the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Philippines as ruled by the arbitral tribunal.
Under UNCLOS, only the coastal state, in this case the Philippines, has the exclusive right to create an artificial island within its EEZ. Consequently, China’s artificial island in Mischief Reef is illegal as its construction violates UNCLOS.
Hughes Reef, he added, is now a 7.6-hectare artificial island with a tall communications tower topped with a radome. China fortified the buildings on Hughes Reef with gun emplacements.
Too Much Aggression
Since 2012, China has shown its supremacy in an area that the PCA explicitly declared as a place where the Philippines has sovereign rights.
From the time President Ferdinand Marcos Jr assumed post, the Department of Foreign Affairs has lodged over 130 diplomatic protests against China for succession of repeated dangerous maneuvers, blocking and water-cannoning from Chinese Coast Guard vessels and Maritime Militia against Philippine vessels engaged in resupply missions.
But the worst aggression took place on June 17 after Chinese Coast Guard vessels swarmed, collided, embarked and destroyed Philippine Navy sea crafts on a resupply mission. Seven Filipino navy servicemen were also hurt – including one who lost his thumb, after Chinese Coast Guards – armed with axes, bolo and metal sticks attacked the Philippine Navy personnel, an incident which according to military experts constituted a dangerous provocation, which may be enough ground to invoke the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty with the US.
Under the Mutual Defense Treaty between the Philippines and the US are eight articles and requires both nations to support each other if another party attacks the Philippines or the United States.
However, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. doesn’t seem inclined on invoking the Mutual Defense Treaty, at least for now.
He finds it rather imperative to resolve the problem peacefully.
Halt Diplomatic Protests
Oddly though, Marcos expressed belief that the Philippines must do more than file diplomatic protests to address Chinese vessels’ aggression at sea even as he claimed that the country has filed “over a hundred” protests and a similar number of démarches to respond to Chinese vessels’ presence in Philippine waters.
“We have to do more than just that,” the Presidential Communications Office quoted Marcos as saying.
In response, Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo said the Philippines and China are preparing to hold a bilateral consultation mechanism meeting where the escalating tensions between the two nations in the South China Sea, the entirety of which China claims, are expected to be brought up.
“Whatever confidence-building measures we achieve, they will not be at the expense of promotion of our sovereignty, sovereign rights, as well as our rights and jurisdiction on the West Philippine Sea,” Manalo said.
Previously, Marcos assured that the Philippines will not resort to war in addressing issues in the West Philippine Sea.
He said that the country will address issues related to the disputed region through “peaceful means.”
The Philippine Navy was on its way to bring food, water, medicines and other supplies to BRP Sierra Madre that was deliberately grounded atop Ayungin Shoal in 1999 to assert Manila’s territorial claim.
Most Critical Time
Tensions between China and the Philippines are at a critical level now than at any point in the last decade. China claims almost the entire West Philippine Sea as its own, even though most of the archipelago is within the Philippine EEZ.
The Chinese Coast Guard has pushed back against Philippine navigational freedom in the Philippine EEZ with force, using water cannons, aggressive maneuvers and occasional shouldering to prevent the Philippine Coast Guard from reaching two particularly sensitive sites.
The latest irritant in the relationship is an audio recording of a call between a Chinese embassy official and former AFP Western Command chief Vice Admiral Alberto Carlos who denied agreeing to reduce Philippine supply convoys to the contested Second Thomas Shoal.
China claims to have struck a deal with the previous Philippine presidential administration to allow Philippine fishermen access to contested areas, so long as the Philippine coast guard dialed back its operations. The current administration denies that such an agreement ever existed, or if it did, that it was an informal arrangement and no longer carries any weight.
As a result, Philippine National Security Adviser Eduardo Año called for the deportation of the Chinese embassy personnel who leaked the purported audio recording. He accused the embassy staff of spreading disinformation in order to sow division and disunity in the Philippines.
“Those responsible for these malign influence and interference operations must be removed from the country immediately,” he said.
Against US Intervention
China is also pushing back on US military operations in the area. The US is a treaty ally of the Philippines, and is its most outspoken supporter in maritime sovereignty disputes with China.
A spokesperson for China’s military said that a US Navy destroyer passed close by the Chinese-occupied Paracel Islands, and that Chinese forces “issued a warning to drive it away.” The spokesman said that the passage “seriously violates China’s sovereignty and security.”
The US Navy confirmed that the destroyer USS Halsey transited through the Paracels for a freedom of navigation operation, and said that Halsey was there to challenge “unlawful and sweeping maritime claims.”
Without singling out China which claims almost all of the South China Sea as its own, including areas located hundreds of miles from the Chinese mainland, the US federal government reassured its commitment to help the Philippines against aggressors. (ANGEL F. JOSE)
