“We must be firm and maintain an uncompromising position over the West Philippine Sea in accordance with the 2016 arbitral ruling and international law”
Today, the Filipino nation raises its flag to commemorate 125 years of Philippine Independence in a complex and in what experts are seeing is now in an environment at a high level of flux where our government’s vow to implement an independent foreign policy will be tested by the high stakes geopolitical tensions in the Indo-Pacific.
It is important to reflect on the history of our nationhood and remember how we have struggled and evolved from what is still mostly centuries of colonial rule, fighting revolutions, wars, and treaties.
In the aftermath of the Spanish-American War, independence from Spanish rule was declared on June 12, 1898, by Emilio Aguinaldo, the first President of the First Philippine Republic.
Aspirations of sovereignty was thwarted when the Treaty of Paris of 1898 ceded the Philippines to the United States.
The next year Filipinos fought the Americans in the Philippine-American War until defeated in 1902, then the United States established a civil government with the promise to eventually grant independence.
In 1935, the Commonwealth of the Philippines was created as a transitional government to independence, but World War II broke out with Japan invading and occupying the Philippines from 1941 until liberation by American and Filipino forces in 1945.
The Treaty of Manila finally recognized Philippine Independence on July 4, 1946, as a unitary presidential Constitutional Republic. President Manuel Roxas was its first president.
This historical digest of Philippine Independence shows how after nearly eight decades of post-war, post-cold war, post-Soviet Union, post-Arab Summer, post-economic booms and crises, and post-COVID 19 pandemics, economic and geopolitical alignments have, and will continue to change.
The Philippines is now in the strategic center of polarizing alignments amidst aggressive expansionist actions of China threatening the stability of the region.
Celebrating Independence Day is not just about honoring the sacrifices of our heroes and cherishing the culture and heritage we now have.
It is an opportunity to re-assess and recalibrate goals and directions as we recover from the deep scars of the pandemic.
The spirit of independence as a nation is intimately related to the government’s ability to protect and pursue national interests which goes beyond securing our territories from external and internal threats.
The pandemic has taught the world that national security encompasses the intermeshed dimensions of the environment, health, and economic sustainability. Still recovering from the global pandemic, escalating geopolitical tensions spawned by China’s expansionist ambitions are threatening to cause a serious disruption in the Indo-Pacific region that, like the ongoing Ukraine war, will radiate more damaging economic shocks globally.
In a responsive shift from his predecessor, President Marcos Jr. has recalibrated the Philippine defense strategy to focus on external capabilities.
In his recent statement during the 125th Anniversary of the Philippine Navy, he said, “In this crucial transition, full support for the Armed Forces must be guaranteed especially for the Philippine Navy’s priority goals of enhancing its intelligence, defense and coordinative capabilities.”
The Philippine Coast Guard is now pro-actively patrolling and responding with bold professionalism to regular encounters with Chinese vessels intruding in our territories.
Ten navigational buoys have been installed to warn mariners of shallow waters and also serve as sovereign markers. Last week, the coast guards of the Philippines, Japan, and Australia started its first patrols in the West Philippine Sea.
Newly appointed, returning Department of National Defense Secretary Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. who first served in the post during the administration of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, said in a recent press briefing, “Our territory is our territory, and UNCLOS cannot be changed by the passage of time, nor changes in administration.”
I liked his slight twit to Beijing when he said, “As a stronger country, it (China) has the bigger obligation to be magnanimous and show trust and to earn the trust of the Filipino people by conforming its activities to recognize norms of international law, which in our case is UNCLOS.”
The Philippines has undergone much political, social, and economic evolutions and continues to be confronted by challenges, so many hits and seemingly much more misses, but with the Filipinos’ ever resilient and good nature the country has always managed survive as a democratic state.
China’s aggressive behavior poses a serious threat to regional stability and directly violates Philippine sovereign rights.
We must be firm and maintain an uncompromising position over the West Philippine Sea in accordance with the 2016 arbitral ruling and international law. We must strengthen alliances and partnerships with like-minded states committed to uphold the rules-based international order that would create what geopolitical experts call a “collective deterrence” against China’s aggression.
This is an alliance that wants deter war, an alliance to sustain the peace and stability that has fostered a global, and China’s economic boom.
Equal focus should be on economic engagements for trade and investment partnerships that will reboot our economy to a higher trajectory and directly benefit Filipinos.