A Filipino state of confusion!

To understand the precise meaning of the word “invasion” I opened my old copy of Black’s Law dictionary. I bought this book when I was a student of Law almost half a century ago. Black says “invasion is an encroachment upon the rights of another. The incursion of an army for conquest or plunder xxx”. Dr. DJ Harris, in his book “Cases and Materials on International Law” quotes Mr. Adlai Stevenson, Ambassador Plenipotentiary of the United States of America, who gave a more vivid description of the word invasion. According to Stevenson, “xx it is the use of armed force by one state against another and against its will”. Stevenson gave that definition when India allegedly invaded the Portuguese territories of Goa, Danao, and Diu on the Indian subcontinent. To the ordinary mortal’s mind like mine, when an armed force is used by one state against another, there is war between them. The eminent Dr. Jovito Salonga, once a president of the Philippine Senate, says that “war commences upon the commission of an act of force by one party xxx”.

I have seen on the internet, graphic aerial pictures presented by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative of the military facilities made by China in the Calderon Reef, Kagitingan Reef, Burgos Reef, McKeenan Reef, Panganiban Reef, and Zamora Reef, all in the Spratly Islands. Accordingly, China has engaged in unprecedented dredging and artificial island-building in the Spratlys, creating 3,200 acres of new land.

The pictures posted in the internet show the use by Communist China of its military forces to encroach upon our sovereign territorial rights. Its encroachment is coupled by occupation, within the meaning of public international law when China erected facilities for its air and naval forces. Such acts fall within the definition by Black and Stevenson of invasion and which Salonga describes as war being commenced by China even if it is undeclared.

China, in this undeclared war against the Philippines, employs a theory written in Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War”. That Chinese military genius said that all warfare is based on deception. “Hold out baits to entice the enemy. xxx If (the forces of the enemy) are united, separate them”.

China has succeeded in sowing confusion in us such that we, Filipinos, are not united in our stand. We are not one in protecting our rights against a known aggressive enemy. For instance, many of our countrymen were angered when Chinese forces descended upon the West Philippine Sea, yet some of our national leaders led by former president Rodrigo Duterte appeared friendly to them. There should be no friendship with a state that usurped portions of our territory. Yet, there is even a rumor that Duterte, instead of upholding the Philippine victory in the ruling of the International Arbitral Tribunal, promised Chinese President Xi Jin Ping to remove the Philippine navy ship BRP Sierra Madre from the Ayungin Shoal, a rumor which, because it has remained undenied, carries a heavy degree of believability.

Here is a definite sign of our confusion. While most of our countrymen were demonstrably indignant that Chinese vessels, only recently, terrorized a Philippine vessel that brought supplies to the crew of BRP Sierra Madre with water cannons, some of our government officials sojourned to China and enjoyed luxurious accommodations there. These officials, by waltzing with their Chinese hosts, seem to have condoned the criminal acts committed by Chinese assets against Filipinos in Philippine territory. In other words, we are bullied but some of our leaders are clapping in approval of the bullying! Confusion, anyone?