EDITORIAL - Creeping occupation

What is ours is ours, the President and commander-in-chief said at the anniversary of the 115-year-old Philippine Navy. His defense chief echoed the statement yesterday, vowing that the Armed Forces of the Philippines would “fight to the last soldier” for “what is ours.”

“Ours” refers to Ayungin Reef in the Spratlys – part of Palawan’s Kalayaan Island Group – which is now reportedly surrounded by Chinese fishing and maritime surveillance vessels. The Chinese maneuver, reported a few days ago, is reminiscent of their creeping occupation of Panganiban or Mischief Reef near Ayungin starting in 1993, and of Panatag or Scarborough Shoal off Zambales starting last year.

The reefs are all a long way from China’s 200-mile exclusive economic zone, but the world’s second largest economy is using its wealth to build up its defense capability and aggressively stake its claim over nearly the entire waters around it. If China could find a way to include Palawan’s Tubbataha Reef within its bizarre “nine-dash line” – the area that it claims as its maritime territory, which at low tide could include the beaches of its Southeast Asian neighbors – it would do so, the better to harvest endangered sea turtles and scaly anteaters.

Even if the nine-dash line cannot be extended to Tubbataha in the Sulu Sea, the Chinese can stake a claim on other reefs and islets dotting the West Philippine Sea. The Philippines will have to do more than talk tough to stop the Chinese. Already, Filipino fishermen have been forced out of their traditional fishing grounds off Zambales by Chinese vessels, and the same is now happening in Ayungin.

By the time the case brought by Manila to the United Nations for arbitral proceedings is settled, the Chinese would have occupied more spits of rock and coral in Philippine waters – and there is no assurance that they would abide by any UN ruling that favors the Philippines.

No one is coming to help the Philippines shoo away intruders: not Uncle Sam, not other Western countries, and not the other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. All of these countries have an interest in staying on the good side of Beijing. We are on our own here. If we assert that “what is ours is ours,” we should go beyond bluster; the AFP should do a better job of upholding national sovereignty over Philippine territory.