Archipelagic maritime defense and security

THE Philippines is composed of 7,641 islands and has the world’s fifth-longest coastline at 36,289 kilometers (km). Over 60 percent of its 112 million population live along its coastlines, rivers and waterways. Its coastal waters cover an area of 266,000 square kilometers (sq km), which extends to the 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone from its shores.

Despite the abundance of fish stocks, aquamarine, energy deposits and other water resources, the Philippines has pursued a spatial land planning and development approach since the 1950s. It has not fully taken advantage of the vast resources of its territorial seas, coasts and deep waters, which are home to fishes, crustaceans, coral reefs, seagrasses, natural gas, oil and even tidal energy.

‘Blue economy’

Despite the waters around, between and connecting her islands, the Philippines has smaller investments in “blue economy” as compared to Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia. These blue economy activities encompassed fisheries, marine tourism, ports and shipping, offshore oil and gas, desalination, ocean energy and marine construction, seafood processing and marine biotechnology.

Blue economy activities across the Southeast Asian region accounted for $1.4 trillion in value added, with around 54 million people employed in different sea-based industries.

Now, the Philippines faces one of its most serious existential threats in history. The People’s Republic of China has aggressively claimed the whole South China Sea — all 3.5 million sq km tucked in its nine-dash line together with the islands, islets, coral reefs, cays and atolls therein. Similarly, the on-and-off tension in the Bashi Channel, which is the waterway dividing Taiwan and the Philippines, has escalated with China’s pronouncement to reassert control over the territory, sending her fighter planes and testing missiles to the strait.

Any flash point conflict in the Bashi Channel would seriously affect maritime trade, endanger submarine cable networks and disrupt the sea lanes of communication. With The Hague Permanent Court of Arbitration’s ruling denying China’s claims, the diplomatic efforts to peacefully settle the dispute have not gained traction and are ignored by China with utter disregard of Philippine sovereignty.

With increasing threats in the horizon, the Philippines urgently needs to redirect its defensive strategic efforts and military resources from the land to the sea. History has taught us that our foreign invaders came to the country from either the western or eastern seaboard as the Spanish, American and Japanese forces did. Our greatest asset — the sea — also became our weakest link.

For more than half a century, the Philippine national security had been too focused on building strong land forces — the army, marines and constabulary — to fight off would-be invaders, secessionists and insurgents, while relying on the US Indo-Pacific Command to protect and patrol our waters and seas. When the Philippines dismantled the US bases on Nov. 24, 1992, it took China just a few years to commence occupying Scarborough Shoal and claim it as its own.

In fact, Chinese-sponsored firms illegally excavated rocks and soil in Zambales to build a 3,500-hectare island near the shoal. Since then, China has incrementally swallowed the Spratlys archipelago, whose northern-eastern section was part of the Philippines maritime territory.

The shift from land to sea or the archipelagic maritime defense will require a restructuring in the mental models of our country’s top policy, defense and security officials. Existing data show that the budget of the Philippine Army is 60 percent of the total spending for defense while the Philippine Air Force and Philippine Navy have 20-percent share, respectively.

Almost three-fourths of our troops are equipped to fight inland and have no real-combat experience defending our shorelines. The Philippine Navy and Philippine Air Force are currently building up their assets, materials and equipment while meagerly projecting a credible defense posture against China.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines organizational structure is divided into nine unified commands, and as it is spreading thin resources in different sections of the archipelago.

Priority actions

In this light, here are priority courses of action that we must initiate to redirect our strategies and energies toward the maritime defense and security domain:

First, we need to make every Filipino conscious that our maritime territory is crucial to the survival not only of the next generation but more directly to the transformation and prosperity of the current generation through blue economy activities, such as via fishing, exploration of oil and natural gas, sea-based industries, tourism and shipbuilding.

Two, reservists in the Philippine Navy and auxiliary volunteers in the Philippine Coast Guard should be expanded across all spectrums of society. Recruitment and placement of able-bodied men and women in these service branches has to be intensified to build up the personnel in case of the need for relief troops, logistical support and other ancillary services.

Third, defense spending and training on advanced missile systems, such as American High Mobility Artillery Rocket System Multiple Launch Rocket System with range of over 300 km, must be relentlessly pursued with our allies’ help, including anti-missile defense, radar systems, drones, gunships and attack helicopters.

Fourth, it is important to intersect maritime defense and security with disaster preparedness and response since a sizable population of Filipinos live along coastal areas. The Philippine Coast Guard must be equipped to supervise and manage any mass evacuation of civilians in case of emergencies.

Archipelagic maritime defense and security is long overdue considering the seismic geopolitical changes that have disrupted the region and unnerved our people’s way of life. Any conflict or actual threat, in the near future, like how our ancestors experienced, will come from the sea.

After all, we Filipinos are descendants and kindred spirits of the sea.