MARIA, 28, lives in Masinloc, a seaside town in Zambales that has depended on fishing as one of its most importation livelihoods for generations. She, her four children and her mother are praying before a crucifix for the safety of her husband Roberto.
Roberto, with three of his neighbors, decided to go fishing near Scarborough Shoal and defy the China Coast Guard (CCG) vessels that are blocking access to the rich Filipino fishing grounds there. China has claimed nearly the entire South China Sea, of which the West Philippine Sea is part, as part of its territory. This includes Scarborough Shoal, historically called Bajo de Masinloc and also referred to as Panatag Shoal. In fact, the country has taken control of parts of Philippine territory, in what some observers have called an invasion or annexation. Roberto, and as many as 1,500 Filipino fishermen like him, have lost their livelihoods and incurred a 60-percent loss in their catch since the Chinese blockade began. This blockade has had an indirect impact on as many as 13,000 people in 11 municipalities along Zambales’ coast.
The CCG maintains a 24/7 presence there to enforce Beijing’s outrageous and illegal claim. Roberto was previously prevented from fishing when his boat was caught in a water jet from a powerful Chinese water cannon aimed at a Philippine Coast Guard ship that was patrolling nearby. In late 2025, China declared the entire Scarborough Shoal as part of its exclusive economic zone and a “nature reserve,” using environmental conservation as a reason to justify its blocking tactics and assert its claim.
That claim has been declared as having no legal basis on July 12, 2016, by an arbitral tribunal constituted under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and hosted by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, the Netherlands. But China continues to allow its fishing fleets to plunder the fishing grounds there and has built several military bases on other shoals, complete with runways and military hardware, missiles and radar sites in Philippine territorial waters. It can be called the forced occupation of Philippine territory.
Bishop Bartolome Santos Jr. of Iba, Zambales, has been outspoken in supporting fishermen like Roberto. In a joint pastoral exhortation in early 2024, Santos condemned the Chinese “bullying” and “forcible occupation” of Philippine waters. The Church must be “proactive” and “stand with its people,” he said. In another joint pastoral exhortation in late 2024, titled “Children, Have You Caught Anything to Eat?,” six bishops from dioceses directly affected by the sea dispute, including those in Zambales, Palawan and La Union, criticized the government’s previous “policy of appeasing” China and declared that “words are not enough” to address the plundering and destruction of Philippine marine resources. The bishops also said that if diplomacy failed, it was “permissible — morally necessary even” to seek the help of international allies to defend Philippine territory. That could only mean the United States of America.
Taiwan
The buildup of US military forces in Subic Bay, Zambales, might be seen by some as an answer to those bishops’ appeal. The US is responding to China’s threats to annex or take Taiwan by force, if necessary, by 2027. The Chinese Navy recently surrounded Taiwan with a naval blockade. Chinese President Xi Jinping has insisted that Taiwan is part of China. Tokyo added to the tensions last November when its premier Sanae Takaichi said an attack on Taiwan would be an attack on Japan. The US has responded since 2014 by building up its nine bases within Philippine military bases, including in Subic Bay Freeport, where it would construct a “joint ammunition manufacturing and storage facility.” They will manufacture howitzer shells and other weaponry and store critical materials like nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin. It is designed for high-output munitions production.
The US Navy is establishing a large-scale equipment depot in the free port. The former Hanjin shipyard is now owned by American firm Cerberus Capital Management. Its co-founder and former chief executive officer Stephen Feinberg owns at least 75 percent of the company. He was sworn in by Trump as the 36th US deputy defense secretary last March. His corporations have contracts with the US government. The plan, it seems, is to transform Subic Bay into a de facto US “military “base.” The Agila Subic ship repairs Philippine Navy and US ships, and a naval station is being constructed at the Nabasan Pier, to be ready by 2028. Subic’s airport is to be restored and upgraded for military patrols of the South China Sea.
It is a frightening preparation for war over Taiwan, but that possible conflict would also target Chinese military bases on Philippine shoals and might drive the Chinese out of Philippine territorial waters. For sure, this likely US military response is not what the Filipino bishops asked for when they said it was “permissible — morally necessary even” to seek the help of international allies to defend Philippine territory.
The US military facilities are for preventive attacks against the Chinese military if any conflict over Taiwan arises, and makes them — and the Philippines — vulnerable targets, too. It is not for the defense of the Philippines because Roberto and his friends still cannot go fishing to feed their families. Nothing has happened to restore access to Philippine fishing grounds for the benefit of Filipino fishermen. In fact, it all makes the Philippines a major strategic target of Chinese missiles and drone strikes in the coming years, promising destruction and death to Filipinos.
Consider the impact of the aggression of nations in recent years and the massive change to the world order and violations of the rule of international law set up after World War II. China has occupied parts of Philippine territory and is apparently set to invade Taiwan. Russia has invaded and occupied parts of Ukraine and bombs it daily. The US bombed Venezuela three days into 2026, and seized its president and oil reserves. There is civil war in Sudan. The US is keen to take over Greenland to get its minerals, even if it destroys the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. This makes President Donald Trump the best ally of Russia’s Vladimir Putin, who will continue to attack Ukraine and, perhaps, even other European countries. US action is giving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government the green light to bomb any nation it considers its enemy with American weapons.
Meanwhile, Maria and Roberto are living in poverty with thousands of other impoverished Filipino fishermen blocked from fishing by China and having little or no food for their children to eat for months.
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