Geopolitical and national security experts said the West Philippine Sea (WPS) issue and the existence of illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (POGO) will be among the key election issues in 2025.
The experts made the statement during a post-State of the Nation Address forum on Wednesday, organized by Democracy Watch Philippines, in partnership with Stratbase ADR Institute.
While inflation remains to be the most urgent national concern, Stratbase president and geopolitical expert Professor Dindo Manhit also expects China’s information warfare in the Philippines and the proliferation of POGOs to be important election issues in 2025.
“Disinformation, misinformation, and cyber security threats impact our politics, impact our lives. We have seen that not only on security issues. We see that also in the political discourse. That’s why I have shared that we are still in a pandemic of misinformation, and we need to stop the spread of disinformation topic in the West Philippine Sea and even in economic issues,” Manhit said.
“They have weaponized social media. They have organized message targeting and propaganda campaigns through trolls. They have amplified disinformation and public opinion manipulation in social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube. There is an information warfare and we consider this an issue as we go into the 2025 election,” he added.
Similarly, Manhit said POGOs, its connection to Alice Guo, a Chinese national, who was able to infiltrate Philippine politics, and the network of human trafficking links and other related crimes are significant threats to the country’s national security and peace and order situation.
Foreign policy expert professor Renato De Castro said the competition between Philippines and China is not just happening in the WPS but also in the cognitive realm through China’s malign influence operation.
De Castro said the Filipino people should work together to address these security issues, especially as the country approaches another election season.
Geopolitical expert Richard Heydarian also believes the West Philippine Sea issue will be one of the defining and emotionally-charged issues in the upcoming 2025 elections.
Political Science Professor Alma Salvador said the existence of POGOs and the illegal activities surrounding its operations show the weakness in the country’s regulatory institutions.
“The indictment against POGO is really an indictment against our institutions. The fact that we’ve allowed POGOs that are very much related to transnational criminal activities in which some Chinese or a lot of Chinese are also being implicated, says something about the robustness or the lack of robustness of our regulatory institutions,” Salvador said.
