THE Philippines must ensure that it adopts, as much as possible, an equi-balancing strategy towards both China and America. To push back against Chinese adventurism by deepening Philippine dependence on another power runs counter to the very logic of protecting its national sovereignty – Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago.
The statement quoted above gives a distinct angle to the South China Sea's conflicting positions (from China's perspective) or the West Philippine Sea (from the Philippine perspective).
At the center of the controversy is ownership of the territories. Corollary to this, an issue is: who has the right to explore and exploit its aquatic and mineral resources?
In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled to invalidate Beijing's South China Sea claims.
It upheld the Philippines' sovereign rights over its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), including reefs on which the Chinese had built artificial islands which it had turned into military outposts.
It decided that the Philippines has exclusive sovereign rights over the West Philippine Sea (in the South China Sea) and that China's “nine-dash line” is invalid.
Experts contend that the arbitration case did not tackle sovereignty claims. It merely affirmed that the (EEZ) encompasses the Mischief Reef and Second Thomas Shoal areas as well as the Reed Bank.
Tensions over the resource-rich waters have increased in recent weeks after the Philippine government detected more than 240 Chinese boats at Whitsun Reef in the Spratly Islands, where China and the Philippines have rival claims.
In a statement on April 13, the National Task Force – West Philippines noted that hundreds of Chinese vessels were in the Julian Felipe (Whitsun) Reef. These included navy warships, coast guard vessels, and ships manned by Chinese maritime militia personnel.
"As the situation (in the South China Sea) evolves, we keep all our options open in managing the situation, including leveraging our partnerships with other nations such as the United States," Philippine Defense Department spokesman Arsenio Andolong said recently.
Further stating that the continuous swarming of Chinese vessels poses a threat to navigation safety, the safety of life at sea, and impedes Filipinos' exclusive right to benefit from the marine wealth in the EEZ.
Should the Philippines go to war to assert its sovereignty? "War is not even an option," according to retired Supreme Court senior associate justice Antonio Carpio, "because the United Nations Charter and the Philippine Constitution do not allow this to settle territorial or maritime disputes."
In framing the proper approach to resolving this conflict, it is essential to be conscious that all countries work hard to protect and promote their interest.
There is no such thing as a purely benevolent nation. The “Realism” approach to the study and practice of international politics recognizes that all nation-states are motivated by national interests or, at best, national interests disguised as moral concerns.
Continued conflict on the exploitation of this area is like a zero-sum game rather than a win-win situation.
A zero-sum game is a mathematical representation of a situation in which each participant's gain or loss of utility is exactly balanced by the losses or gains of the other participants' utility.
A win-win situation is suitable for everyone involved: For example, supporters of globalization assert that it is a win-win proposition for the rich and the poor.
The key, therefore, is learning to cooperate and thereby promote national interest.
The two are not necessarily conflicting. Generations of citizens of China and the Philippines will benefit from cooperation. Conflict will negate potential gains.
These words are relevant in this context:
We are now physically, politically, and economically one world and nations so interdependent that a nation's absolute national sovereignty is no longer possible - John Boyd Orr [L1] - a Scottish medical scientist.
He pioneered the science of human nutrition and developed new correlations between health, food, and poverty. He was the first director-general of the Food and Agricultural Organization.