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Philippine Navy Hosts the 17th Asean Navy Chiefs’ Meeting

The year 2023 is a monumental year for the Philippine Navy. What started as a revolutionary independent force that was founded by the first Philippine President, President Emilio Aguinaldo on May 20, 1898,[i] grew to become the country’s naval warfare service that celebrated its 125th anniversary last May 20, 2023. But before the celebration of its founding anniversary, the Philippine…


Rightsizing and Retooling Defense Forces

In April this year, the President ordered a review of numerous government positions for rightsizing to “upgrade and reskill the workforce in order to improve state services and programs.” The call emanated from the President’s 2022 State of the Nation Address. Consequently several legislators proposed a National Rightsizing Act that is well-aligned with the Revised Administrative Code. The review and…


Philippine Navy Hosts the 17th Asean Navy Chiefs’ Meeting

The year 2023 is a monumental year for the Philippine Navy. What started as a revolutionary independent force that was founded by the first Philippine President, President Emilio Aguinaldo on May 20, 1898,[i] grew to become the country’s naval warfare service that celebrated its 125th anniversary last May 20, 2023. But before the celebration of its founding anniversary, the Philippine…




MEPSEAS South-East Asian Marine Protection Project Concludes

The conclusion of a successful 5-year initiative to protect the marine environment in South-East Asia from the negative effects of ships and shipping has been marked at a high-level meeting (25-27 October 2022) in Viet Nam with the adoption of a MEPSEAS-Halong Statement by the participating countries. The Marine Environment Protection of the South-East Asian Seas (MEPSEAS) project has seen…


South China Sea Disputes – A Zero Sum Undertaking

Conflicting island and Maritime claims are the subject matters for the South China Sea (SCS) territorial disputes. The sovereign states involved are some ASEAN nations; outside ASEAN would be Taiwan and China. An estimated 3.37 Trillion worth of global trade passes though SCS annually which accounts for a third of the global maritime trade 80mpercent of China’s energy imports and…


Former Philippine Navy Ships from ASEAN Countries

“We’re going to have to send you back, to rescue the Vietnamese Navy.” We forgot ‘em, and if we don’t get them or any part of them, they’re all probably going to be killed. ~ Admiral Donald Whittier, USN, Commander, Evacuation Mission, Operation Frequent Wind to CDR Paul Jacobs, USN, Commanding Officer of the Knox Class Frigate USS Kirk (FF-1087)….


TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY

Over the past few decades many nations in Southeast Asia, including the ASEAN, have increased their defense budgets to procure and upgrade weapons systems. Some accounts indicate that the increase in the regional defense spending is two to three times the world average. Interestingly most of the weapons acquisitions are for their air and naval forces that are incredibly more…


Revisiting the Need for a Legally Binding Code of Conduct in the South China Sea: Chasing a Moving Target

Legal bindingness is one of the most contentious points in the consultations between ASEAN countries and China on a Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC). Legal bindingness will differentiate the COC from the nonbinding 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC); after all, a legally binding agreement was the original vision…




Small & Medium Enterprises in the Philippines: A Short Look at Expansion & Growth

I was watching CNN Philippines recently when a short mention of Philippine Innovation was highlighted. It showed a small business owner had developed a process to collect, restore, and possible reselling antique bicycles. It highlighted the fact that there are thousands of abandoned bicycles that could supply his shop. The owner also had a couple of younger employees on apprenticeship…


Ten New Insights in Climate Science 2019

The world continues to emit greenhouse gases while our planet’s climate is changing faster than ever. The 10 New Insights in Climate Science 2019 report intends to take up the latest and most essential scientific findings published in an extraordinary year –the climate science year in review. The world is not on track Greenhouse gas emissions continue increasing; gap between…


Urgent Alert: “Climate Emergency”

The latest warning issued in early November 2019 by thousands of scientists from 153 countries about instituting measures that would effectively address Climate change speaks volumes in terms of human nature’s resistance to change. According to the scientists, Mother Earth “clearly and unequivocally faces a climate emergency.” She has registered faster than expected acceleration of global warming. This alert came…


The Navy-Coast Guard Quandary

Reviewing some of my past email, I came across a June 23, 2011 query from a Philippine Marine reserve officer, Frank Suha, who has been living in the United States for many years: There is recent news that PCG is planning to buy brand-new high endurance cutters/vessels – this will be a big help in the West Philippine Sea issue….



Engaging with China

The 2018 National Security Strategy of the United States revealed a change in posture, tacitly stated by Christopher Preble in his article “The Benefits of Engaging with China Far Outweigh the Costs and Risks” (30-January-2019) in The National Interest: The assumption that engagement with rivals and their inclusion in international institutions and global commerce would turn them into benign actors…



Interferry Looks to the Philippines for Safety Lessons Learned

A four-man team from global trade association Interferry were in Manila from March 18-22 in the first stage of a project to study significant safety improvements in Philippines ferry operations and produce a “lessons learned” report to help other developing nations. The FerrySafe project team had arranged one-hour meetings with a wide range of stakeholders to learn how fatal incidents…


Sino-US Trade War: Implications for the Philippines

SUMMARY The Sino-US trade war is a symptom of strategic rivalry and great power transition; The trade war has both risks (loss of profit margins for intermediate goods) and opportunities (trade diversion) for the Philippines; The Philippines needs to diversify commercial markets and intensify free trade agreements to buffer the impact of trade wars; The Philippines should employ means to…


Lingayen Gulf: A Glimpse of Maritime History

Lingayen Gulf, where the famous Hundred Islands National Park lies, is one of the nation’s historical bodies of water. It not only provides a source of livelihood, from fishing to tourism to the coastal cities and municipalities of Pangasinan province but also an ideal venue for naval exercises including amphibious landings. Lingayen town is the provincial capital and lends its…



Philippine Borders and Customs Security Concerns

The Philippines, being an archipelago, has no land borders with neighboring countries. Unlike some countries in Northern Africa like Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt, that have problems with porous borders between countries, the Philippines is spared of that kind of border problem. However, while these North African countries share the same stretch of coastline along the Mediterranean Sea, the…