Kalayaan: Sovereignty and joint business opportunity

(My column first appeared in CNN Philippines-Digital News on June 12)

The recent visit of Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana to Pagasa Island in the West Philippine Sea brings back a time when I was foreign affairs secretary in the 1990s. It was during that period when we were blindsided by the incident on Mischief Reef in the same contested waters, where Beijing built a structure that it labelled as a resting house for fishermen. I described it as “blindsided” because the United States knew all about it with their satellite capability, so secret that they chose not to tell us about it.

It was around that period that former defense secretary Rene de Villa recalled: “During the early days of (former) president Fidel Ramos (FVR), we noticed that the Chinese were putting small concrete markers with Chinese characters in some of the reefs and shoals that are part of our claimed area in the West Philippine Sea. I ordered the navy to remove those Chinese markers and then recommended to FVR that we should task the Philippine Navy to put up lighthouses in some of the islets/reef/shoals we are claiming and man them with navy personnel as a means to occupy them and establish our possession and ownership of the area...in addition to their basic function as aids to navigation in the area.”

Unfortunately, we never got the budget for the project. I suspect that the prevailing sentiment at the time echoed by our ASEAN partners was not to disturb the status quo, but to push for a code of conduct on the South China Sea. This code is still being negotiated today, decades later — and is looking more and more like a lesson in futility.

Lorenzana’s visit to inaugurate a beach ramp that will facilitate delivery of supplies to the island is a strong manifestation of our claim on Pagasa, which we occupy but is also claimed by China, Vietnam, and Taiwan.

It’s about time we do so.

As early as 1978, we already had a municipality on Pagasa, with a local government in place and a permanent population of 334 souls. The municipality of Kalayaan predates Sansha City which the Chinese government set up only in July 2012 to administer the disputed islands that China has claimed.

Yet Kalayaan has been left to wither in the vine. Its population has dwindled to a little over half of its peak of 365 in 1995. And no wonder. Other than a school, a five-bed hospital and a municipal hall, there is not much by way of significant infrastructure on the island.

More important, there is little by way of opportunities for livelihood on Pagasa to keep people there. Kalayaan should be given special status, its growth encouraged and supported by the government and private business as well. A fish landing and processing plant, an ice plant, an ecotourism facility (like the one Malaysia has built), a marine biology laboratory affiliated with a university, and greenhouse farming can, I think, make the island self-sustaining and remain ecologically viable. A public-private sector endeavor should be encouraged.

Needless to say, our military installations on the island should be upgraded and modernized. The air strip should finally be upgraded. All of this, of course, would not be possible without a good telecommunications infrastructure which only the private sector can provide.  For the record, Smart established a cell site connected to its main network via VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) in  June 2005.

Perhaps it would be too much to expect Smart and Globe to inaugurate a joint cell tower. But I hope the two Filipino telcos can consider such a venture to assert our ownership of the broadband space that apparently Vietnamese and Chinese mobile operators have been using to charge roaming rates. The commercial significance of such a joint venture is minute, but the symbolic value for our country is very significant.

In sum, Chinese actuations in the West Philippine Sea today pose a threat to regional security and to freedom of navigation. It behooves us—the government and private sector—to support Kalayaan, a fifth-class municipality in the province of Palawan.

Possession is nine-tenths of the law!!!

Digital readiness for the new normal

I have long been an advocate of getting our country ready to take full advantage of the digital economy. The coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 pandemic has by necessity hastened that transformation already. Still we have a long way to go to even catch up with our ASEAN neighbors, where it is projected that by 2025, we will only be the sixth largest digital economy in ASEAN valued at $25 billion.

To find out where we are in terms of readiness and how the government intends to proceed to get us there, Acting NEDA Secretary Karl Chua has accepted the invitation of the Carlos P. Romulo Foundation and Makati Business Club to be the keynote speaker at its webinar “Digital Readiness for the New Normal” on June 23 (Tuesday) from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. It is significant to note that his top priority is fast-tracking the national ID system called PhilSys which would provide the baseline data for Filipinos to fully participate in the digital world when all facets of human activity – work, learning, buying and selling, banking, health and governance – will increasingly be conducted online and made more efficient through data analytics. 

It will be a massive undertaking to register all qualified Filipinos and permanent residents within a period of two years. Perhaps the private sector can help expedite the process and the webinar may provide the opportunity to discuss this in-depth.

For those interested to join the webinar, please send an email to [email protected].