Trilateral summit enhances PH’S strategic partnerships; boosts maritime security

President Ferdinand Marcos’ participation in a trilateral summit meeting at the White House with US President Joe Biden and Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida marks a high point in Philippine foreign relations and diplomacy. Previously, top-level meetings with fellow heads of state were held in the sidelines of ASEAN and APEC meetings — or in one-on one conversations between two leaders. Mutual security and economic concerns prompted the US to invite Japan and the Philippines to draw up an action blueprint.

The Philippines has been fending off maneuvers hampering the movement of its resupply missions to the BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal that has become one of the five symbolic rallying points of its assertion of sovereignty in the West Philippine Sea.

Former Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio identified four other such flashpoints, after the enactment of China’s new coast guard law in February 2021. These are: 1) Reed Bank, a gas-rich area within 200 miles of the country’s archipelagic baselines; 2) Sandy Cay, a high-tide sandbar within two nautical miles off Pagasa Island; 3) San Felipe Reef, a low-tide atoll within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone; and 4) Scarborough Shoal, a high-tide rock whose territorial sea was declared by the arbitral tribunal as a common fishing ground of Philippine, Chinese and Vietnamese fishermen, situated about 120 nautical miles from Zambales’ coastline.

On a broader scale, massive environmental damage has been inflicted on coral reefs and undersea flora and fauna within the Philippines’ territorial waters — while Filipino fisherfolk’s activities have been curtailed significantly.

Japan, too, has been similarly affected by China’s increased activities in the East China Sea, venue of the two countries’ dispute over the Senkaku islands.

President Biden’s summit initiative projects the US’ emphatic support for adherence to international maritime law. He declared unequivocally: “I want to be clear, the United States’ defense commitments to the Philippines and Japan are ironclad. As I have said before, any attack on Philippine aircraft or vessels in the South China Sea will invoke our mutual defense treaty.”

For its part, the Philippines continues to affirm the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) — a position that was upheld by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in July 2016. Since February 2023, the Marcos administration has launched a transparency initiative aimed at seeing to it that hostile and intrusive activities in the Philippines’ maritime zones in the South China Sea are duly reported and exposed.

The trilateral summit fortifies the Philippines’ rulesbased strategy anchored upon the principle that “Right is might.” Aside from the US and Japan, the five other G-7 countries, namely, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, have endorsed this position previously. Also supportive are the 28-member European Union and the ASEAN.

Before leaving for the US, President Marcos issued Executive Order 57 reorganizing the National Coast Watch Council to the National Maritime Council “to ensure a unified, coordinated and effective governance framework for the country’s maritime security and domain awareness.” Indeed, he is doing what he regards as the “primordial duty of a leader” to “defend the territory of the Republic.”