Philippine archipelago, land surrounded by water

An archipelago is a group of islands, including parts of islands, inter- connecting waters, and other natural features which are so closely interrelated that such islands, waters, and other natural features form an intrinsic geographical, economic, and political entity, or which historically have been regarded as such. This is the definition of archipelago as boldly written in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS).

The Philippines is an archipelago. I learned from my high school teacher, long before the UNCLOS document was signed, that there are 7,107 islands composing the Philippine archipelago. This number is what most of us, Filipinos, know although it has been recently revealed, to our great surprise, that there are actually 7,641 islands in our country. The Inquirer said that the change is a reminder of how knowledge, even scientific knowledge, is a matter of faith. Most of us never really counted the Philippine islands ourselves.

In the 1994 Miss Universe contest, Miss Charlene Gonzales, was asked how many islands our country has. She disarmed the emcee when she quickly retorted “high tide or low tide?” But in so doing, she highlighted our obvious disinterest in this particular piece of important geographical fact.

In our archipelago, there are reportedly 150-180 different tongues although I only know of Cebuano, Tagalog, Ilocano, Pangasinan, Pampango, Bicol, Hiligaynon, and Waray-Samarnon on top of English. Is it our difference in spoken language that prevents us from acting as one country?

Communist China does not mind whether it is high tide or low tide or we speak Cebuano or Tagalog. China has arrogantly intruded into Philippine archipelago and violated our sovereign territorial rights by constructing its military facilities in some islands which the International Arbitral Tribunal ruled as within the Philippine Exclusive Economic Zone. The Philippines thus faces a big problem.

True to the off-tangent nature of this column, let me say that there is, however, a more serious problem than the illegal occupation of our territory by this godless giant. This is the absence of our unity to fight these communist invaders. It seems to me that we are taking for granted this manifest breach of international law committed by China. Sadly, we are not one nation expressing our collective anger in whatever way. Our disunity is perhaps embedded in our being an archipelago. It is tragic. While our culture varies from one island to another (example the Warays differ from the Maranaos) no region displays the Filipino revulsion of this Chinese incursion. For some reason, the 150 languages (or dialects) spoken in 7,000-plus islands make it seemingly impossible for us to adopt a common stand against these invaders.

More so with our leaders. They apparently have lost their sense of national dignity. Why should Duterte, a past president, visit the Chinese leader in a manifestly friendly environment? Is the rumor true that he promised Xi Jinping that he would remove BRP Sierra Madre? Have you heard our president even in his own Ilocano dialect condemn the Chinese invasion? Our vice president is busy arguing for confidential funds but she does not spare even one minute to denounce, in Bisaya, the act of China’s coast guard in blinding Filipino seamen’s eyes with laser light. Instead of spearheading the Boycott China Movement, many Cebuano local officials recently paid homage to China in their visit there!

Is there anyone who can help us concretize a plan to drive away the Chinese from our territory and claim the Philippine archipelago as a mass of land surrounded by water and not a body of water dotted by islands?