February 4, 2008 | 12:00am
This is what happens when a country has no credible defense capability. Foreigners build a runway on an island claimed by the Philippines, and the government complains only when the leader of those foreigners personally inaugurates the project.
The claim to national sovereignty of those foreigners isn’t even recognized by many governments, who follow a so-called one-China policy. Yet the Taiwanese built a runway on a disputed island in the South China Sea, and their president Chen Shui-bian arrived for the inauguration last Saturday, sparking a protest from the Philippine government.
The island, called Taiping by the Taiwanese and Ligao by Filipinos, lies 1,600 kilometers from southern Taiwan, in the disputed Spratly island chain. Regarded by China as its province, Taiwan laid claim to Ligao in 1946, sending military forces to the island and building medical facilities. Weather and environment monitoring equipment were also installed.
The Philippines claims Ligao but has not sent troops or built any structures on the island, as it has done on Pag-asa off Palawan. Manila did not stop the construction of the Taiping runway, which started two years ago.
Chen, now a lame duck with just three months to go in his second and final four-year term, is seen to have visited Taiping as a show of political strength. This does not spare him from censure from other claimants to the Spratlys.
The island chain is spread across one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, an area believed to be rich in oil, gas and marine resources. Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam claim all or part of the islands. The claimants have resolved to maintain the status quo pending a peaceful resolution of conflicting claims. That status quo has been broken by the construction of the runway, and aggravated by Chen’s visit.
But what can the Philippines do about it, apart from mope? A diplomatic protest could have been made as soon as construction of the runway started. But our Air Force reconnaissance planes probably could not fly that far to see what was going on while our naval patrol boats must have run out of fuel. If the Taiwanese do what they want in Ligao, there’s nothing we can do about it.
