AFP: PH already in ‘political war’ amid West Philippine Sea dispute

MANILA, Philippines — The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said the country should adopt a mindset that it is already in a “political war” amid the ongoing dispute with China in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).

AFP chief of staff Gen. Romeo Brawner, through his acting Deputy Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Arvin Lagamon, noted this during a forum organized by the Stratbase Institute and Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung on AFP modernization.

“We are already at war. Not yet a kinetic war, but the political war, the economic war, and more importantly, the cyber and informational war are already going on,” Lagamon said in the forum, as cited in a statement by the Stratbase released on Monday.

READ: West PH Sea: Think tank warns vs ‘normalizing’ China coercive acs

Lagamon said that the country continues to confront the “daily illegal, coercive, aggressive, deceptive, destructive, and bullying” activities of China in the WPS.

He also said the Philippines remains on defense against China’s “use of sharp power through their United Front Works and their malign information and foreign influence,” especially with the foreign country’s dismissal of the 2016 arbitral ruling that favored the Philippines.

Meanwhile, WPS Spokesperson Rear Admiral Roy Trinidad pointed out that amid the WPS dispute, “the modern battlefield is the mindset of the Filipino people.” 

“We need to protect the cognitive domain of the Filipino people,” Trinidad said. 

“Filtering, sifting through the information being put out is critical to the perception of the Filipino people…For all we know, we might be electing somebody by 2028 because of the manipulation of the perception of the public,” he added.

Stratbase President Victor Andres “Dindo” Manhit also said that “every day, efforts to undermine and discredit the ruling persist.”

READ: West Philippine Sea: China dumping cyanide in Spratlys, PH says

“We need to transition from asserting our rights to defending our rights,” he said. 

On July 12, 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration issued its ruling that the Philippines has exclusive sovereign rights over the WPS and that China’s supposed “nine-dash line” is “invalid.”

“Having found that certain areas are within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines, the Tribunal found that China had violated the Philippines’ sovereign rights in its exclusive economic zone by (a) interfering with Philippine fishing and petroleum exploration, (b) constructing artificial islands and (c) failing to prevent Chinese fishermen from fishing in the zone,” the tribunal said in the decision in 2016.

The PCA issued the said ruling after several months of hearings and submission of documents, in which China refused to attend as it also refused to recognize the case. /jpv