Escalation of tensions in the West Philippine Sea

With Chinese Coast Guard vessels hitting Philippines Coast Guard officers with blinding lasers and with the US and Philippine military conducting joint military training in the West Philippine Sea, there is currently a major confluence of factors that may push the tensions in the Asia-Pacific Region into a grave and imminent danger of a shooting war between two superpowers, with our country being squeezed in between.

The current Philippine government cannot continue trying to play games with both Beijing and Washington DC. If we are for America, which is the most likely and more preferable option, then so be it and let us declare it as a national policy. If we are for China, which is very unlikely and most damaging to our interests, we have to be explicit about it too. We cannot follow the US foreign policy of strategic ambiguity in the Asia-Pacific Region. That ambiguity is best illustrated when Washington publicly declares on the one hand, that it is committed to uphold the One-China policy of the United Nations, and on the other hand, keeps on giving support and assistance to Taiwan in its efforts towards independence.

The Philippines cannot ride on two horses. Was it Confucius or Lao Tzu who said that a man who chases two rabbits may most likely end up not catching one. We cannot choose China over the US because we have too many conflicts with Beijing. And America is our only hope to have the wherewithal with which to defend our nation from a possible Chinese invasion. It is very clear that the Chinese ambitions and current policies and actions in the West Philippine Sea are directly and unequivocally adverse to the rights, interests and well-being of the Philippines and its people. America and the Philippines are not exactly perfectly compatible. But our two countries and peoples are bound by a long history of alliance and cooperation.

The Chinese Coast Guard keeps on bullying and even terrorizing our fishermen who are just exercising legitimate economic activities in our own exclusive economic zones. When President BBM visited Beijing, Chinese leader Xi Jinping assured the Philippine president that such provocative acts would stop. But the Chinese are notorious for promising too many good things and doing precisely the opposite. The recent incident involving the use of lasers that cause temporary blindness was already too far from the bounds of friendly diplomatic relations. China has for the longest time kept on insulting and bullying the Philippines. It kept on violating the UNCLOS or the United Nation Convention on The Law of the Sea. It rejected an international tribunal arbitration judgment in our favor. Enough is enough.

Professor Clarita Carlos suggested that the Philippines should lower the category of its relations with China. That suggestion was the only one among her many pieces of advice to BBM that I consider sound and viable. If that advice is adopted, the Philippine government should recall its ambassadors and other senior diplomats currently assigned in Beijing. That major embassy should be reduced to a small consular office with the lowest ranking consul as head and one minor clerk. If China has enough decency, it would reciprocate by recalling also its ambassador stationed in Manila and do likewise. Let us trade insults with insults, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

China should get what it deserves. If it has no respect for the Philippines why should we accord it the decency that is only given to decent and civilized nations? We should strengthen our relations with the US and make our joint military exercises more frequent. We cannot choose our enemies, but certainly, we can choose our friends. Even a freshman student of Foreign Relations knows that by heart.