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…
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…
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…
MAKATI CITY 07-December 2022 – The Philippines hosted the 12th ASEAN Maritime Forum and the 10th Expanded ASEAN Maritime Forum in Manila on 06 and 07 December 2022, gathering participants from ASEAN and its partners in a two-day discussion on a wide range of maritime issues. Established in 2010, the AMF is a venue for dialogue on a wide range of maritime…
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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…
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…
“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)….
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…
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…
It would be best to assume that the U.S. would not respond immediately and militarily … A David armed with a sling shot poised to hurl stones at Goliath is a Biblical lore. The presence of an alarmingly big number of Chinese ships, as many as 250+, of which 40 were spotted on 21-March-2021 anchored at Juan Felipe Reef or…
Early this year on February 11, the President announced the termination of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) in response to the suspension by the U.S. of visas of certain Philippine officials in the Department of Justice and an incumbent senator. The suspension would have taken effect 180 days later. On June 11, in a reversal of position, the government, citing…
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…
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…
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…
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….
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…
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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…
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, 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…
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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…
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