EDITORIAL - Baselines law a hollow assertion

Anybody with a clear sense of proportion will readily see from a cursory look at any map that the Spratlys belong to the Philippines. The group of islands in the South China Sea are nearer to us than to any of the other five or so claimant countries.

But in the real world of geopolitics, neither proximity nor sense of proportion is of any value in any dispute, especially when push comes to shove. In the language of international relations, only military might and economic clout are capable of being understood.

That is why, when President Arroyo signed the Baselines Bill into law, she did it almost surreptitiously, as if fearful word might get out before she committed her hand and she is forced to abort the signing.

But these things do get out. And when China and Vietnam, two of the other claimants, heard of the signing, they immediately protested, calling the law illegal and invalid. Just as quickly, we explained the law was merely a "technical and clinical adjustment" of boundaries.

Of course there is neither rhyme nor reason for and in the exchange. China and Vietnam have no right interfering in our internal legislative and executive affairs. Unfortunately, they have the guns and the gold while we do not.

Besides, the United States, the great ally in whom we have entrusted our defense for so long, has been unmasked as only interested in its own interests. In our naivete, we have fought in many of its wars on the mistaken notion that it will reciprocate.

That it never did. In the Spratlys, the Chinese and the Vietnamese have long started building their own structures while we melted in helpless watching. The United States did not even cough an ehem as if to say it was watching.

In other words, we are on our own. With a Navy made up of leaking transport ships and an Air Force made up of Cessnas donated by South Korea and sightseeing helicopters, our Army of ill-equipped and ill-trained soldiers cannot hope to enforce any law asserting our sovereignty.

In a world that is likely to see drastic realignments of power and influence as a result of the global economic crisis, expect a real threat of foreign provocations that can only leave us helplessly diminished.