Most Filipinos mistrust China, citing it as a significant threat to the Philippines, a survey conducted in March showed.
The Pahayag 2023 First Quarter Survey conducted by Publicus Asia Inc. showed that 79 percent of respondents believed China poses a significant threat to the Philippines.
Six out of 10 Filipinos also support the stance of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on the issue of the West Philippine Sea (WPS).
This support encompasses not yielding to China, seeking a diplomatic resolution to territorial disagreements, and fortifying bilateral cooperation between the Philippines and China.
“We have been following Filipino voters’ perceptions of certain countries and international organizations since the first quarter of this year. We can infer that voters have varying attitudes towards these entities, particularly the United States, China, and Russia,” said Eric Estrabo, Pahayag Project Lead.
Japan holds the highest level of trust among Filipinos, followed by countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Canada, South Korea, Australia, and the United States of America.
A separate survey by OCTA Research showed Filipinos supporting the expansion of military cooperation between the Philippines and the United States to address issues in the West Philippine Sea.
The Tugon ng Masa survey conducted from July 22 to 26, showed that 54 percent of adult Filipinos are in favor of strengthening and expanding Philippine-US military ties to address territorial disputes in the WPS.
Only 11 percent are not in favor while 32 percent are undecided, according to the survey.
The areas with the most support for the expanded Philippine-US military ties are in Balance of Luzon and Mindanao, with 56 percent and 59 percent, respectively.
Only 46 percent, however, are favorable in the National Capital Region (NCR) and the Visayas, OCTA said.
Opposition to the strengthening and expansion of US-Philippine military cooperation to address WPS issues is strongest in Visayas at 14 percent, while Balance of Luzon (11 percent), NCR (8 percent), and Mindanao (11 percent) had similar levels of opposition at about one in 10 adult Filipinos residing in those areas.
Across socioeconomic classes, Class E has the highest percentage of favoring the expanded US-PH cooperation with 67 percent. The opposition is strongest in Class ABC with 15 percent, followed by Class D with 12 percent.
For those undecided or ambivalent, OCTA said the NCR has the highest percentage with 44 percent, followed by the Visayas with 33 percent.
The Tugon ng Masa nationwide survey is an independent and non-partisan poll conducted regularly by OCTA.
Researchers used face-to-face interviews with 1,200 male and female probability respondents aged 18 years and above.
The survey has a ±3% margin of error at a 95% confidence level, OCTA said.
On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. on Wednesday said the country should develop its military bases to fully secure its territory and safeguard its future.
“We have to develop Philippine bases throughout the perimeters of the archipelago in order to secure our territory not only now but also for the future,” Teodoro said in a statement.
He issued the statement after visiting four Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) projects at Camp Melchor Dela Cruz in Gamu, Isabela, and Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija on Tuesday.
“These Philippine bases with EDCA facilities are purely for our internal credible deterrent posture,” he said.
Defense Department spokesperson Arsenio Andolong, meanwhile, said Teodoro’s visit provided an opportunity to assess the status of the ongoing developments in these facilities.
These visits are part of the DND chief’s commitment to strengthen the country’s defense capabilities and foster closer ties with military personnel and local communities, Andolong added.
“Secretary Teodoro’s visits began in Cagayan earlier this month. He is poised to continue his visits to other military bases and the other existing EDCA sites and additional agreed locations,” he said.
Meanwhile, an American security analyst said the BRP Sierra Madre, the dilapidated warship that the Philippines intentionally ran aground on Ayungin Shoal to counter China’s claim to the area could soon “succumb to the elements.”
Ray Powell, lead for Project Myoushu (South China Sea) at Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Centre for National Security Innovation, said the recent use by Chinese ships of water cannons to block a resupply mission to the shoal was part of a focused campaign by Beijing to illegally blockade the ship until it “succumbs to the elements”.
“Which, unless something changes, it inevitably will,” said Powell, a former US Air Force colonel.
“At that point, China’s campaign will have succeeded in winning control of this key location, just 100 nautical miles (185km) from the coast of Palawan and deep in the heart of the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.”
Powell said it was “outrageous” that China was denying the Philippines free access to one of its own installations within its own EEZ and the issue deserved more international attention.
The Philippines military in 1999 deliberately ran the Sierra Madre aground on Second Thomas Shoal — known as Ayungin in the Philippines and Ren’ai Jiao in China — in response to China’s occupation of the nearby and then-uninhabited Mischief Reef a few years earlier.
Beijing has turned Mischief Reef and other reefs and outcrops into artificial, militarized islands to assert its claims to most of the South China Sea, overlapping territory claimed by the Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
Also on Thursday, Palawan 3rd District Rep. Edward Hagedorn filed a resolution urging the government to “take appropriate action” in securing the West Philippine Sea through the conduct of joint multilateral maritime patrols.
In House Resolution 1201, Hagedorn said officials from the Philippines and the United States have repeatedly stated their intention to conduct a joint maritime patrol in the WPS “for the protection of the Philippines’ sovereign rights, and the maintenance of regional stability and freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea.”
Aside from this, Hagedorn said the Philippine government should also conduct a joint multilateral maritime patrol with several like-minded and allied states, which “will be seen as a stronger and more resolute initiative” in asserting the sovereign rights of the Philippines and deterring unlawful aggression and harassment.
Meanwhile, the National Security Council (NSC) on Thursday dismissed the claim of former Malacañang official Rigoberto Tiglao that the Philippines has committed to China to remove the BRP Sierra Madre from Ayungin Shoal.
In a radio interview, NSC spokesperson Jonathan Malaya said Tiglao’s basis for his claim was a memo from the late Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario where the latter supposedly mentioned a similar claim of China.
But Malaya pointed out that Del Rosario was simply quoting China in the memo.