DFA: Protecting Filipino workers abroad, asserting sovereignty

THE WORLD saw the Philippine foreign office take strong policy stances in 2011 on the protection of Filipinos put at risk in the Middle East and the protection of Philippine sovereignty in parts of the Spratly island group that clearly belong to Palawan province.

The Spratlys are in the West Philippine Sea (also called the South China Sea).

The unprecedented strong stance taken by the Department of Foreign Affairs in both issues is being seen by some observers as a result of the arrival in February of DFA Secretary Albert del Rosario.

He himself went to conflict-torn Libya, met with Libyan officials and personally dealt with the repatriation of more than 500 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and made sure more batches of OFWs were taken out of harm’s way and repatriated.

Also, the Foreign Affairs chief, on several occasions, has boldly defied China’s bullying tactics in defense of Philippine national interests in the Spratlys.

Protecting sovereignty

Manila has established a “strong” policy on the decades-old West Philippine Sea issue by lodging several diplomatic protests against China’s intrusions in Philippine-owned parts of the island group.

The government has also reiterated on several occasions the Philippines’ preparedness to protect its sovereignty over the claims on the contested waters.

The Philippines has formally challenged China on the matter before the United Nations-backed International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS).

The decision to use the name West Philippine Sea instead of the commonly used South China Sea was also a move to show Philippine sovereignty over that part of the Pacific.

The government also took the self-protective measure of pushing for the drafting of a Code of Conduct and proposing the Zone of Peace, Freedom, Friendship and Cooperation (ZoPFF/C) that would segregate the disputed from the non-disputed islands in the Spratlys.

Philippine sovereignty over some areas of the West Philippines Sea, including reefs and islets, are not in dispute.

What Manila wants is for these areas to be identified as parts of the Philippines.

In the same way, those areas that are not in dispute as far as their belonging to China, Vietnam or any other country should also be identified.

In February up to May this year, the Philippines protested several intrusions by Chinese military in the country’s 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EZZ).

Around seven to eight intrusions were recorded by the government, including bullying of Filipino fishermen and building of buoys—all in violation of the 2002 Declaration of the Code of Conduct, a non-binding edict that seeks to reduce political tension in the region by prohibiting any activities from all claimant-countries that would heighten tensions.

Vietnam followed suit by protesting also Beijing’s “increasing military activities” in the region.

China denied those allegations, maintaining its sovereignty over the whole West Philippine Sea, which covers about one million square miles of land and water, including the much-contested Spratly and Paracel islands, wholly claimed by China and partly by the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam.

China, the second largest economy in the world, remained adamant that it will only negotiate with claimant-countries and that it is not “open” to the United States continuous intervention in the issue.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had said that the United States has “strategic interest” to see peace and stability in the region since it is a vital sea route to some $1 trillion worth of global trade.

To settle the dispute, the Philippine government pushed for international arbitration by adapting maritime laws consistent with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS), particularly of incorporating the ZoPFF/C in the actionable framework that could possibly be drafted next year to implement a Code of Conduct.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), of which the Philippines is a founding member, has warmed up to the idea of the ZoPFF/C, much to the chagrin of China, which insists that non-claimant countries must not get involved.

The Asean groups the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Brunei Darussalam.

US presence

Del Rosario admitted knowledge of the United States’ plan to “reengage in Asia to a greater extent” by “repositioning and rebalancing” its r influence over the Asia-Pacific region, especially after Washington realized that the “region is a key driver in global politics” and that the “economic power of the region is evolving.”

He said that the United States has stationed two of its warships in Singapore’s main port, but clarified that there is “no specific plan for the Philippines [yet].”

Any positioning of the US military in Philippine territory, however, would violate the Visiting Forces Agreement between Manila and Washington.

Del Rosario said though that both countries are still deep into discussions of their relationship.

Arab Spring

By middle of this year, at the height of sporadic insurgences in oil-rich Saudi Arabia, President Benigno Aquino 3rd, according to sources, said that the Philippines cannot afford another repatriation effort the size that it conducted in Libya where more than 9,000 Filipinos were repatriated in several batches.

Considering that the oil-rich kingdom is home to more than 1.3 million OFWs, it was not altogether surprising that President worried about another repatriation operation.

The protests in Saudi Arabia subsided but not before those in Syria escalated to heights that pushed the Foreign Affairs to raise alert level four (mandatory repatriation) in the country shortly before Christmas.

The Arab Spring, a wave of revolutions that has toppled dictatorships in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, and pushed several Middle East and North African countries to realign government policies and systems, has displaced more than 10,000 Filipinos, leaving them unemployed and facing the harsh reality that there are no jobs for them at home.

But even amid this displacement, del Rosario noted that the Philippine government has been “successful” in its repatriation of Filipinos simply because “we didn’t lose a single [life].”

“[We had] no losses, no casualties. Everyone who expressed their desire to be repatriated has been repatriated,” he said.

What’s in store

Next year, according to del Rosario’s plans, the issue of the West Philippine Sea will be discussed when he visits the United States together with Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin.

In the planned meeting with their US counterparts, they will request, under the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty, for a second and third Hamilton cutter (the first one, called the BRP Gregorio del Pilar, having arrived in the Philippines in August) and a “squadron” of F-16 fighter jets.

If acquired, the fighter jets will be the first of its kind in the Philippine military.

“We are trying to get the assistance of several countries to [establish] a minimum credible defense posture,” the DFA secretary said.

“We need to stand up and defend what we believe is ours and they [United States] said that they are willing to help,” del Rosario added.

Diplomatically though, the Philippines would seek the conclusion of the Code of Conduct and its implementing guidelines.

“If we can do that, we’re on track to [establishing] the basis of validating claims,” del Rosario said.
Another track, the secretary added, is for a “compulsory conciliation.”

He said that the mechanism, which does not require China to be a participant, is “good enough” for “the world can accept [it] as being substantial.”

As for the burgeoning revolutions that threaten to dismantle the OFW presence in the Middle East, del Rosario added that the Philippines “will remain ready to do as much as we need to do.”

With the Syrian government on the brink of collapse, the Philippine government has reactivated its alert level four to take out some 5,000 Filipinos in the country, 383 of whom are already back home as a result of several repatriation attempts since August.

Tensions in Syria escalated as pro-democracy groups took the fight to Douma, a large satellite town on the edge of Damascus and believed to be the heartland of support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

This is what 2012 has for the Foreign Affairs department—an attempt to beef up military capabilities to protect the Philippines’ maritime law-mandated sovereignty over parts of the Spratly island group and a continuation of repatriation programs on tension-gripped Middle East countries.

Del Rosario said that the DFA plans to further enhance the three pillars of the department’s action that he set out for his team at the beginning of this year—economic diplomacy, protecting OFWs and promoting national security.

At a diplomatic reception shortly after his appointment, the Foreign Affairs chief pointed out that the Philippines’ current foreign policy is geared toward fostering national development and good governance.

And these, he said during a recent encounter with The Manila Times, will be the Philippines’ guiding foreign principles for years to come.

Or at least, until the former Philippine ambassador to Washington’s term as DFA chief ends. –Bernice Camille V. Bauzon, Reporter, Manila Times