Our National Security Interests – The Maritime Review

National Security Policy 2017-2022 is a declaration of the government’s commitment to continuously develop a national security system that is rules-based, able to effectively respond not only to security threats but also to opportunities beneficial to the national interest. Enhancing the process, scope, and organizational cohesiveness of the national security system is imperative for the Government, with the support of the Filipino people, to act in coherence with the National Security Agenda.

National Security. Our National Security Strategy defines national security as a “state or condition wherein the nation’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, the people’s well-being, core values, way of life, and the State and its institutions, are protected and enhanced.”

Our National Security Interest can be achieved by:

Developing a dynamic, inclusive, and sustainable economy;
Ensuring maritime and airspace security;
Safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity;
Promoting human and ecological security.

In order to attain these end-states, there is a need to build a credible deterrence capability in defense, law enforcement, and enhance mutual defense arrangements with other countries.

Security Sector Reform (SSR)

Unfortunately, the security establishments have human rights abuse records, especially during Martial law. Today, the endless insurgencies still seem endless.

What is SSR?

SSR is the political and technical process of improving state and human security by making security provision, management, and oversight more effective and more accountable, within a framework of democratic civilian control, rule of law, and respect for human rights.

SSR concerns all state and non-state actors involved in security provision, management, and oversight; and emphasizes the links between their roles, responsibilities, and actions. SSR also involves aspects of justice provision, management, and oversight because security and justice are closely related.

SSR can include a wide range of different reform activities covering all political and technical aspects of security, including among others, legislative initiatives; policy-making; awareness-raising and public information campaigns; management and administrative capacity building; infrastructure development; and improved training and equipment.

Philippine Experience

The Philippines can achieve SSR by:

Increasing Civilian Capacity for Defense Management
Establishing an Active Constituency Supportive of Security Sector Reform
Prudent Budget Preparation & Execution
Supporting a Local Defense Industry
Intelligent & Coherent Policy Development & Execution
A New National Defense Act

National Defense Act

The National Defense Act was formulated by General MacArthur as a reaction to Japanese aggression. The intent was to have an Army by training as much as they can from the reserves. The other major services were created by the succeeding Administrative Code Executive Orders.

To be in consonance with the principles of the 1987 Constitution, the National Defense Act should be re-codified.

However, passing a National Defense and Security Act has been a frustration since the 13th Congress. One Defense pundit submits that before we think about legislating a National Defense Act, we must first have Strategic Thinking.

AFP Modernization

Chinese aggression made our leaders plan for shifting policy to external defense, thus the legislation of an AFP Modernization Act was necessary, but economic shocks and all-out wars against never-ending insurgencies made us shift back to focusing on Internal Defense.

The Procurement law also makes it difficult for AFP Modernization to proceed.

AFP procurement involves classified information most of the time. It may be necessary for Defense purchases to be handled by a procurement body dedicated to the AFP.

Another area of concern is our track record of requirements that make it next to impossible for a local company to manufacture defense equipment. One solution is licensed production. Our local shipbuilders could purchase designs from abroad and build ships locally.

Kalayaan retail bonds as fund source:

Since Malampaya and Selling Bases is just a short-term solution, we need to reconsider the 10 Billion retail bond proposal.

Philippine Defense Reform (PDR)

The PDR spanned through President Arroyo’s term to the end of Pres. Benigno S. Aquino’s term in June 2016.

The program’s key areas of reform were:

Implementation of a policy-driven, multi-year defense planning system;
Improve operational and training capacity;
Improve logistics capacity;
Develop effective personnel management systems;
Plan, program, and execute a multiyear capability upgrade program for the AFP;
Optimize the defense budget and improve management controls;
Create a professional acquisition workforce and establish a centrally managed defense acquisition system;
Increase the capability of the AFP to conduct civil-military operations; and,
Develop accurate baseline data on critical AFP functional areas.

Philippine Defense Transformation

During Pres. Benigno Aquino’s administration, the PDR program was renamed PDT with a slight reconfiguration of goals. It is summarized here in this short read.

Our Maritime Philippines

Through the years, various security threats, lawlessness, crime at seas, and terrorism proliferated and continue to do so.

We have witnessed how the Abu Sayyaf dispatched with impunity, exacerbated by foreign terrorists. Maritime Law Enforcement is such a Herculean task; it calls for an all-government approach. In 2011, then President Benigno Aquino III signed EO number 57 establishing a National Coast Watch System.

The National Coast Watch System (NCWS) is our all-government approach to Maritime Issues and Maritime Security. This System was to be the answer to the absence of interagency cooperation among the various Maritime Agencies.

The Process of developing Maritime Security Policies is very problematic because of our archipelagic and maritime nature. The National Marine Policy which is of importance is shown as Exhibit A. The NMP badly needs updating.

The Effectiveness of the NCWS is hindered by a lack of command and control. Fragmented institutions, asked to coordinate and cooperate, are always in search of a lead agency or even a super body like the IATF for Covid. However, the Maritime Law Enforcement agencies seem to be doing their own thing.

For the lack of command and control issues, it is highly recommended EO 57 be amended to address the absence of command and control. Once there is a lead agency, coordination would definitely run smoother.

Maritime Disasters from boat accidents to large vessels burning and sinking have plagued us through the years. Accidents happen but can be prevented. Much has been said about interagency cooperation and coordination to address perennial overlapping functions among agencies. Several round table discussions among focus groups have formulated strategies and submitted white papers only to have them fall on blind eyes and deaf ears or perhaps our “ningas cogon” quirk took the best of us more often than not.

Presidential Certification of Urgency

Several bills related to Maritime Safety and/or Maritime Governance have been filed and refiled in congress such as:

At present, the current Maritime Administration of our government is thinly spread among fourteen bureaus and agencies under seven departments. The fragmentation of our maritime administration has led to bureaucratic entanglement, turf wars over functional overlaps, and conflicting maritime laws and regulations. The restructuring of maritime administration is the first step in creating one super body consisting of maritime bureaus and agencies.

The creation of a National Transportation and Safety Board is a major step to promote transportation safety by conducting independent safety investigations and by formulating safety improvement recommendations. Similarly, a non-regulatory independent investigative body is also needed to be tasked to handle maritime accidents and safety incident investigations.

The Maritime Code of the Philippines hopes to address the Philippines’ non-implementation of international conventions. The Bill seeks to implement these protocols with MARINA as the lead agency. The Maritime Code will make our local safety laws and regulations coherent with international safety laws.

Lastly, the creation of specialized Maritime Courts will unclog our courts of numerous maritime case backlogs and will speed up the resolution of Maritime-related cases.

Like the National Defense Act Legislation, the Biazons have filed these bills as far back as the 13^th Congress. Certifications of urgency from past presidents were badly needed but certain circumstances prevented the bills’ passage.

Maritime Environment

The Philippines was one of six beneficiary ASEAN countries that participated in the technical assistance project of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad). The project had the overall objective of assisting participating countries in protecting the marine environment in the region through accelerating the ratification and implementation of IMO conventions relating to marine environment protection.

The other participating countries were Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. The IMO conventions covered by the project were the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (Marpol), Ballast Water Management Convention (BWM), Anti-Fouling System Convention (AFS), and the London Convention/Protocol (Anti-Dumping of Waste).

The Philippines has been lagging behind in the ratification and implementation of IMO conventions relating to the prevention of pollution from ships. It took the Philippines 30 years to accede to Marpol, one of the main regulatory pillars for shipping; and eighteen (18) years after acceding to the convention, Congress has yet to pass the legislation that will implement the convention.

One sticky issue confronting the ratification and implementation of maritime conventions pertains to the question of which agency has the mandate to implement maritime regulatory functions.

The Philippines thus created through a Department Order the Inter-agency Coordinating Committee for the Ratification and Implementation of Maritime Conventions (ICCRIMC) which served as the venue for dialogues among the various stakeholders in respect of the benefits and disadvantages of ratifying and implementing the BWM and the AFS conventions.

I hope the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) could meet more often to discuss bills that require certification of urgency including those that will enable us to accede to international conventions and treaties.

Conclusion

The creation of the Coast Watch system seemed to have a failure of launching because of Command and Control Issues, thus a creation of a super-body with Command and Control to handle Maritime Administration is, therefore, a must.

A transformed AFP subscribing to all accepted principles of security sector reform or SSR is what we need right now.

The mandate of territorial defense is hounded by internal security concerns and other types of internal issues. This inward-looking defense must be balanced with an outward-looking defense to protect our sovereignty and sovereign rights beyond our shoreline.

For our mendicant attitude to be gradually eliminated, we need to build our own ships. We can do that by licensed production, like how our Filipino shipbuilders have planned to do so by purchasing designs for larger vessels.

For our perennial financing concerns, we could consider floating retail bonds because we might run out of ASSETS to privatize, and Malampaya may soon have served its purpose.

References: