This week marked the second anniversary of the ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. That decision was favorable to the Philippines, because it declared that China’s nine-dash line claim over most of the South China Sea had no basis in fact.
That international legal victory, however, is bittersweet.
After an apparent indecision on whether to enforce the ruling amid China’s incursions into several areas, President Rodrigo Duterte set aside the award in exchange for investments from China.
Since then he has toed the friendly-neighbor line, refusing to bring up the incursions when he speaks with his Chinese counterparts, and even professing undying love for the Chinese leader.
More recently, Mr. Duterte’s spokesman, Harry Roque, defended the Chinese coast guard’s taking of Filipino fishermen’s catch in Panatag Shoal, saying they provided noodles and water in exchange for the fish anyway.
Even the Department of Foreign Affairs, now headed by politician Alan Peter Cayetano, has done nothing to protest China’s acts of militarization. Cayetano did say we protested more than 80 times, but he adopts so loose a definition of the verb “protest” that it hardly counts.
Two years on, the PCA’s decision remains one in theory. The Palace says the alternative is to go to war with China, which we cannot afford. Such oversimplification merely dumbs down the people and does little to advance discussions on a fundamental democratic issue.
Photos of a banner declaring the Philippines as a province of China went viral this week, sadly coinciding with the ruling’s anniversary. It was a joke of course, but one that drove home a point. Is this administration truly willing to trade not just fish for noodles, but sovereignty for investment and loan pledges?
Amid its tough talk and scare tactics, the administration will continue to be weak if it cannot even find the voice to demand respect from others.