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7 - The Philippines and the South China Sea Dispute: Security Interests and Perspectives
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- By Aileen S.P. Baviera, University of the Philippines
- Edited by Ian Storey, Cheng-Yi Lin
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- Book:
- The South China Sea Dispute
- Published by:
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
- Published online:
- 19 May 2017
- Print publication:
- 23 May 2016, pp 161-185
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Summary
The geographic configuration of the Philippines — a mid-ocean archipelago consisting of over 7,100 islands and its strategic location at the crossroads of major waterways including the Pacific Ocean, Celebes Sea and South China Sea, make it the quintessential coastal state. Only a few towns or cities in the country are more than 100 km from the coast; 78 per cent of its provinces and 54 per cent of municipalities, almost all major cities and 62 per cent of the population are considered coastal. International navigation straits crisscross the country, including the Babuyan and Balintang Channels, and the Luzon, San Bernardino, Mindoro, Surigao and Balabac Straits. Shipping provides the major means of linking the islands and facilitating movement of domestic goods and people. Moreover, the country's long maritime tradition is reflected in the fact that one out of every four registered workers on the world's oceangoing vessels is a Filipino and that today, the Philippines hosts the world's fourth biggest shipbuilding industry (after China, South Korea and Japan).
The critical importance of the maritime environment on the Philippines’ national identity and sense of vulnerability was evident throughout the decades-long negotiations for the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), when the near exclusive goal of the Philippines was to obtain recognition by other countries of its unique need to exercise sovereignty over the waters connecting the islands in much the same way as it would over its terrestrial domains. Today this “archipelagic doctrine” is enshrined in Part IV of UNCLOS. The Philippines was among the first countries to sign and ratify UNCLOS, though it was not until 2009 that its provisions could be actively implemented following the passage of an amended archipelagic baselines law.
As one of the South China Sea littoral states, the Philippines has long-standing interests in this maritime space, and the islands, waters and resources of the sea that are closest to the country's main archipelago. The South China Sea is vitally important in providing the Philippines with security against external threats, in light of its long irregular coastlines (altogether longer than that of the United States) and the resultant vulnerability to intrusions or attacks.
5 - An ASEAN Perspective on the South China Sea: China-ASEAN Collision or China-U.S. Hegemonic Competition?
- from Part Two - ASEAN's View on the South China Sea
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- By Aileen S.P. Baviera, University of the Philippines
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- Book:
- Entering Uncharted Waters?
- Published by:
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
- Published online:
- 21 October 2015
- Print publication:
- 03 January 2014, pp 88-112
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Summary
The South China Sea and its Three Problematiques
Among the reasons why a resolution of the territorial and maritime resource disputes in the South China Sea seems to be nowhere in sight are that there is not one, but many disputes in question; not two but many actors involved; and not one particular issue but several strategic interests at stake. The South China Sea disputes can be described as the confluence of three problematiques.
Primarily, the disputes are a contest for sovereignty and control over specific areas of land and water, as well as over economic resources (fisheries, oil and gas), involving two or more of altogether six claimant parties (Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam). Successful claimants hope to enjoy benefits arising from sovereignty and sovereign rights, as recognized under international law, but such rights and benefits may only be fully enjoyed if uncontested. For this to happen, the different sets of countries whose claims overlap must negotiate boundary limits to reduce/remove the overlaps, or, failing to do so, they should agree to resource-use arrangements and other rules governing activities in disputed areas, that may be pursued even in the absence of a definitive determination of sovereignty or boundaries.
Mistrust of neighbours has clearly been an obstacle to an early resolution of the disputes, attributable to power asymmetry or to historical enmities. However, in some cases strong domestic opposition to any compromise, the absence of a clear-cut national policy, and inadequate capacity to move forward with the technical and legal aspects of the claims have also prevented sustained efforts at dispute management.
Secondly, the disputes are a microcosm of the dilemma in security relations between China on the one hand and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on the other hand (four of the claimant-states being members of ASEAN, and Taiwan not having the juridical personality to participate in state-level interactions on this issue). The weaker states (ASEAN) realize they must band together to strengthen their influence over the stronger power (China), but fear that this will lead to a perception of ganging up against China and thus elicit greater hostility than may already exist.
Aquino: Pushing the Envelope, Single-mindedly
- from PHILIPPINES
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- By Aileen S.P. Baviera, University of the Philippines
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- Book:
- Southeast Asian Affairs 2012
- Published by:
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
- Published online:
- 21 October 2015
- Print publication:
- 10 May 2012, pp 241-256
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Summary
The year 2011 started for the Philippines with a huge shock — the suicide of Angelo Reyes, a retired general and former Cabinet member of the administration of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, as a result of a Senate investigation into corruption within the ranks of the Philippine military. The year ended on a rather sour and sad note, with the initial GDP figures showing the economy's lacklustre performance, tropical storm Washi (Sendong) wreaking death and devastation over major cities in Northern Mindanao, while in Manila an open political conflict had broken out between President Benigno Aquino III and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Renato Corona, threatening a constitutional crisis.
If at the end of 2010 the Filipino people held high expectations and high hopes for the six-month-old government of Benigno Simeon Aquino III, by the end of 2011 there was much more division in opinion about how his government was succeeding both in its priority agenda of good governance and in meeting the people's expectations of a stronger economy and a better life. And yet President Aquino remained favoured in public opinion polls, largely due to perceptions of his strong political will in going after his predecessor Arroyo, who stands accused of many wrongdoings committed during her incumbency.
Campaign against Corruption
The suicide of former armed forces Chief of Staff Angelo Reyes in February was an outcome of public revelations that he, along with two other former military chiefs, had been receiving illegal monthly kickbacks and a “send-off” kitty amounting to millions of pesos upon retirement from the armed forces. The exposé was incidental to a Senate investigation on military corruption initiated when two key witnesses — former military budget officer George Rabusa and former state auditor Heidi Mendoza — blew the whistle on military comptroller General Carlos Garcia who had amassed hundreds of millions of pesos and maintained properties abroad.
Allegations of large-scale corruption in the military are highly sensitive in the 120,000-strong armed forces, whose troops have for decades been battling communist and Muslim insurgencies aside from terrorist threats, with little resources for the basic needs of the soldiers and their families.