DONALD Trump, it seems, is no longer quite sure about how he would keep the Strait of Hormuz open. He made some remarks while onboard what I presume was Air Force One, inviting other countries to see to it that traffic through the vital waterway was kept open — this, after he had warned with characteristic, if annoying braggadocio, that he would give Iran a severe spanking were it to impede passage. Iran did just that — and Trump started talking about how it was in the interest of other countries — was he thinking of Europe? — to come to the aid of the US. He even called on China, the very country whose presence he loathed in the environs of Greenland for which reason he had placed the large islands in the crosshairs of his covetousness!
Many years ago, when, once more, the oil-exporting countries — mostly the Gulf states — started to flex their economic muscle and show the world the enormous value of black gold, many social theorists and professors of political morality talked about the necessity of “socializing” resources that the world needed and that, when within the control of one nation, gave it inordinate power over others. But just as the coal mined in abundance in certain countries ushered the world into the industrial age, it was oil that allowed nations to rise to prosperity from what seemed, in centuries past, to be a desert expanse of desolation! The endowments of earth differ — but the point is to be conceded that there are resources vital to the life of nations that are the naturally endowment of some states that, by this token, enjoy influence in world affairs. Without a global government, there is little prospect of “socializing” or “globalizing” vital resources.
We should learn the lesson that “water is power” — not just the water we need for daily household concerns, but waterways: sea lanes, straits, sea routes. Ruling the waves was, at some time — and till the present — bespoke of might as much as ruling over a vast territory. We cannot be browbeaten in respect to our claims over the West Philippine Sea. It amazes me no end why some of our countrymen would rather have the Philippines eased out of the waters west of our archipelago in favor of China. Some who have been elected to public office have exhibited protuberant disloyalty — calling upon the Philippines to give up the Kalayaan Island Group, among the insane proposals made. Water is power — and China is one that will not buckle down in its grasping for power, especially not at a time that Xi Jinping does not seem to be having very good sleep over restiveness in the ranks of China’s powerbrokers.
At the same time, we should have learned the lesson that leaving our security and our interests to the benevolence of the US might not be too good an idea. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), which has regional and maritime security on its agenda, is supposed to be helpful, but it frankly is not, because its members have fragmented loyalties and crisscrossing alliances. But other countries are concerned as we are about China’s maritime ambitions as we are. Japan is and so is Australia — and they are rightly one-third of global shipping depends on keeping these waters open and preventing any single power from deciding who rides the waves and who does not! A “coalition of the interested” may be more promising than the unpredictability of Trump’s politics — and the swinging moods of American foreign policy!
Recently, Archbishop Socrates Villegas wrote Rear Adm. Jay Tarriela a letter of commendation for standing up to China — and to its spokesman in Philippine politics. I join in the accolade, as I laud officers and uniformed personnel of the Philippine Coast Guard and the Philippine Navy as, well as the Philippine National Police who never let their guard down and continue, by their presence that does not shrink from the shadow of China’s mighty vessels to insist that what is ours is ours. Indeed, agreeing to joint use, joint exploration, joint studies, and joint ventures would be the less confrontational option, and these should be explored. But the premise remains unchanging: the Philippines’ sovereign rights over those zones of sea that, by law and international jurisprudence, we exercise exclusive prerogatives. There is, furthermore, the ineluctable fact that our Constitution obligates the State to “protect” the marine wealth of the country and to “reserve its use and enjoyment exclusively to Filipino citizens.” Until we have changed our mind about the Constitution, this is the framework within which every agreement must be achieved.
rannie_aquino@sanbeda.edu.ph
rannie_aquino@csu.edu.ph
