Law & Society by Chester Cabalza
"The Filipino intelligence has a league of its own"
Tuesday, August 9, 2022
Maid in Malacañán: Is it Philippine Cinema’s Newness in Multi-Truth Era?
Friday, October 1, 2021
Will the Philippines align to AUKUS for its submarine program?
Photo from Naval News
By Chester B. Cabalza
Four days after the United States commemorated the decade-old September 11 terrorist attack that restored its glance on homeland security, the challenged superpower once again caught the world’s attention, when President Joe Biden co-founded a trilateral security pact with Australia and the United Kingdom known as the AUKUS to protect its external defence and regional interest in the Indo-Pacific region.
The September 15 AUKUS agreement gives Australia a preferential treatment to acquire nuclear-powered submarine from its Anglo-Saxon allies. Nine days after, Washington extended its arms with allies from Australia, India and Japan as it hosted the QUAD aimed at ensuring commitment to safeguarding rules-based norms in the Indo-Pacific region to pacify China’s aggressive militarization
While debates focused on Canberra’s strategic options to beef up its aerial and naval arsenals through the AUKUS, hanging up on Paris in the equation, emerging Southeast Asian capitals began laying down its cards for a shopping-spree list for submarines as alternative defence of Chinese destabilization beneath the blue seas.
Since the 1950s, Manila had been planning to acquire submarines for the Philippine Navy. In 2010, the navy revealed future plans to acquire submarines as part of a follow up plan to the on-going 15-year 90 billion pesos AFP modernization program. As an archipelagic nation, the Philippines has yet to reach an upright maritime status, given its strategic location and pivotal role in the geopolitically constructed Indo-Pacific region.
After the Philippine Navy launched the
‘Offshore Territorial Defence Force
Now in the 21st century, with the French desire to help Filipino sailors in the Philippine Navy using the whole-of-alliance approach is intended to support the technology development of the Maritime Defense Industry through the improvement of controlling the national cyberspace, enhancing collaboration and alliance building in the external information operations, and modernizing national facilities of the Philippines’ armed forces.
But Manila’s affinity to Anglo-Saxon’s ties was strengthened when President Duterte revived the controversial Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) on July 31, 2021 after the courtesy call of US Secretary Defense Llyod Austin III to the Malacañan Palace amid the threat to scrap the military pact twice under his regime. Since 1945, the US has led and advanced a rules-based international system with allies and partners. An unprecedented era of wealth and peace has been created by free and open access to the world’s oceans. Unfortunately, the system is now in danger while the US maritime strategy targets the two major threats to global peace and prosperity - China and Russia.
Technological advancement has been affecting the maritime world. As a result, the security landscape of the global region has shifted dramatically. Many states are challenging the stability of power in the key regions, predominantly in the Indo-Pacific area, attempting to destabilize the prevailing security order. The substantial technological advancement and hostile military militarization of major powers like China are increasingly eroding the US military advantages.
The proliferation of long-range precision missiles, unmanned aerial and underwater 3 vehicles, drones, artificial intelligence, and other technological advancements used for military operations cannot be assumed that the US has control of the unrestricted access operations to the world’s oceans during times of conflict. But the revisionist actions of China in the maritime domain endanger the American interests. It disrupts alliances and partnerships. If the current trends continue, the US Naval Service will be unable to maintain a competitive advantage at sea and secure national interests within the next decade.
In 2007, Manila and Canberra signed the Status of Visiting Forces Agreement (SOVFA), following the VFA format, and was ratified by the Philippine Senate in 2012 in light of the Scarborough Shoal standoff. Through the SOVFA, Australia has been part of the Philippines-US naval exercises while the archipelagic Southeast Asian nation, remains one of the weakest armed forces in Asia and struggles to cement its strategic position as a middle power in Southeast Asia.
Maritime exercises are conducted for the purpose of training, testing the interoperability of naval forces with other foreign navies; exploring the opportunity to upgrade one’s own naval forces with other foreign navies; and equally important, to support naval diplomacy for the promotion of regional peace and security, and the enhancement of maritime security cooperation in the region. For the Philippines, these naval exercises similarly serve as an effective instrument in support of the country’s foreign policy and interests through state-to-state collaboration.
Annually, close to 20 unilateral, bilateral, minilateral and multilateral naval exercises are conducted between Manila and its allies. The importance of these maritime exercises is made more significant in light of the tensions resulting from conflicting territorial claims in the South China Sea and how effectively Beijing has an upper hand in the Philippine-claimed West Philippine Sea.
The limited resources of the AFP and other affiliate law enforcement agencies also pose daunting challenges in securing the vast Philippine archipelago. For one, the Philippine Navy is responsible for the naval defense of the seabed and other submarine areas. In reality, the country’s current naval assets and capabilities are disproportionate to the requirements of securing an island nation especially in the face of perceived threats emanating from our continuing maritime and territorial insecurities in the West Philippine Sea.
Manila’s dilemma on submarine acquisition falls now to limited resources more than its foreign relations with the newly-formed security group AUKUS and its French connection. The price is right mantra on submarine procurement will certainly shape the potential of its submarine program as along as it corresponds to the aerial and naval needs of Philippine external defence architecture that would provide a clearer, long-term maritime deterrent plan built on mobile coastal defence batteries armed with long-range anti-ship missiles and covered by integrated air defence shield.
Friday, July 17, 2020
Implications of the COVID-19 Crisis on Philippine Multilaterialism
Wednesday, June 17, 2020
Think Tech Tank: Touring the World in the Time of Pandemic
But still, Antartica remains in my bucket list, reserved in the same intellectual wanderlust for the next season of my podcasting on the effects of climate change.
We made sure that the content of every podcast conversation from six continents became the heart of our incredible and creative team. It inspired us to tell eclectic stories on international development and security that are not digested much in the media and other reading materials.
I couldn't imagine how billion of Indians were barred from going out during the national lockdown as a preventive strategy to survive the pandemic. Happiness shrouded me after Italians waged an all-out war against the coronavirus and successfully flattened the medical curve and sent their message of hope of “andra tutto bene” to the world.
Filipino sinologists analysed intently China’s [mis]behaviours on the US-China trade war, Taiwan’s successful mask diplomacy and Hong Kong protests. On the other side of the story, Filipino-American sociologist and criminal justice advocates brought out their inner voices against systemic racism and racial bias in the United States.
It also drew comparative counterterrorism policymaking with an Indonesian terrorism thinker. We understood how Africans seriously dealt with emerging diseases and pandemic in their continent. We also valued how Czech Republic in Central Europe and Thailand in Southeast Asia set the bar on the new normal practices on tourism, business, and innovation.
In time of uncertainties, we need to find solace in our will to survive the pandemic until we finally search the vaccine to heal the world altogether .
Wednesday, April 29, 2020
Vaccine Heist (Part 2): The Quest for Coronavirus Vaccine Begins
Photo from The Guardian |
Blogger's Notes:
Commentary of an Academic
(Copyright @ 2020 by Chester B Cabalza. All Rights Reserved).
How can you not take the chances if there are other 66 candidate drugs? Imagine all the 249 compounds our scientists and military physicians are doing today. The world is developing 115 vaccine candidates; let’s not lose this momentum, ladies.
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Beijing draws flak in launching Ideational Power campaign in the Philippines
Photo from Manila Standard |
Blogger's Notes:
Commentary of an Academic
(Copyright @ 2020 by Chester B Cabalza. All Rights Reserved).