[Editor's note: Roberto R. Romulo was Foreign Affairs Secretary in the early 1990s. After decades of work in the private business sector both abroad and in the country, he joined government service in June 1989 when he was appointed Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and the Commission of the European Communities. As a diplomat, he has been decorated by the governments of Belgium, Thailand, Spain, Chile, France and the Philippines. Mr. Romulo is a board member of several corporations and is chairman of the Carlos P. Romulo Foundation for Peace and Development.]
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, 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 President Fidel Ramos, 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.
It was around that period that former Defense Secretary Rene de Villa recalled: “During the early days of President Fidel Ramos, 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 good telecommunications infrastructure which only the private sector can provide. Perhaps it would be too much to expect Smart and Globe to go there to inaugurate a joint cell tower, much to the delight of DICT Undersecretary Ramon Jacinto. But I hope the two Philippine 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!!!
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