The Philippines will be hosting the 31st ASEAN Summit later this year, at mid-century of its founding and into the second year of the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015. The 50th year of the ASEAN also marks a milestone with the implementation of the AEC Blueprint 2025, which is the second phase of constructing the AEC….
Feature story: Rearing a Maritime Nation by VADM Emilio C. Marayag, Jr. AFP (Ret). Also in this issue: Philippine Maritime Conference 2017 at the PhilMarine 2017 by Vicky Viray-Mendoza; Learning from Korea by COMMO Carlos L. Agustin AFP (Ret); Statement of Justice Carpio on China’s threat to go to war with the Philippines by Justice Antonio T. Carpio, Senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines; and PRS Supports MARINA with latest Technology on Probabilitic Damage Stability Calculations.
The presentation of some groups working to promote awareness of the archipelagic and maritime nature of the nation is one of the highlights of the recent Maritime Forum held last month at the National Defense College of the Philippines. This could have been triggered by the developing situations in the South China Sea and Benham Rise in the Philippine Sea….
Introduction The maritime issues under consideration in this article relates to the establishment of a legal order and durable regional ocean governance mechanism addressing non-traditional maritime security concerns, initially concentrated on the South China Sea giving prominence to a narrowed ASEAN-China context, but eventually extrapolated to a large maritime setting that is the seas of the ASEAN and the Central…
The United Nations Charter outlaws the use or threat of force to settle disputes between states. In the West Philippine Sea dispute, an arbitral tribunal created under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), to which China is a party, has already ruled with finality that the Reed Bank is within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)…
115th MARITIME FORUM MF 115 was hosted by the PHILIPPINE COAST GUARD (PCG), held at the PCG Building, Port Area, Manila on 30-September-2016. Commo CARLOS L. AGUSTIN (Ret), FORUM CHAIR thanked the host RADM WILLIAM MELAD, CPCG, and acknowledged HON FELIPE JUDAN, USEC DOTr for Maritime Affairs, as well as the other agency heads present in the Forum. RADM WILLIAM…
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With the disputes concerning the West Philippine Sea in the South China Sea and recently, the issues surrounding Benham Rise, we see how the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea or the Law of the Sea Convention (LOSC)1 affects the maritime entitlements of the Philippines. It is indeed imperative for the Philippine state, a maritime nation, to…
An Order was issued proclaiming a Naval Reservation at Bicobian, Isabela by former President Ferdinand Marcos after the Karagatan incident wherein the CPA/NPA/NDF landed some 500 M14 rifles (made in China) on a fishing boat that ran aground at Digoyo Point, Isabela due to rough seas in mid-1972. I later got ordered to move the RPS Iloilo (PS32) from Northern…
The Philippine Ambassadors Foundation Inc. (PAFI) urges the Philippines to seize the opportunity presented by its chairing of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 2017 when ASEAN celebrates the 50th anniversary of its founding to assert and project a leadership role in the construction of regional ocean governance and maritime security as a Philippine contribution to the ASEAN Community…
The Philippine Navy (PN), through the Office of Naval Strategic Studies, in partnership with the Foreign Service Institute and the National Coast Watch Council Secretariat, organized the first Experts’ Dialogue on Maritime Security Governance to discuss the different approaches and mechanisms on how to effectively manage the nation’s maritime domain. Drawing from the experiences and best practices of Indonesia and…
Description. The Whale Shark (Rhincodon typus) is a filter-feeding shark, very slow moving, and the largest known fish species in existence. The largest confirmed Whale Shark had a length of 41.5 ft and a weight of 47,000 lbs according to Gerald L. Wood (1976) in The Guinness Book of Animal Facts and Feats. There are undocumented or unconfirmed claims of…
The National Defense College of the Philippines defines national security as the state or condition where the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the people’s way of life and institutions are protected and enhanced. One of the predominant effects of climate change is rapid sea level rise. If sea level rise occurs, will it affect the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and the Filipino’s…
The 107th Maritime Breakfast Forum (MBF) was hosted by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC), and held at Columbia Tower, Ortigas Avenue, Mandaluyong City, on 25 Nov 2015. Undersecretary EDWIN LOPEZ (Operations and PPP, DOTC) welcomed the attendees on behalf of SEC. JOSEPH ABAYA. COMMO. CARLOS L. AGUSTIN (Ret.) (President, Maritime League) chaired the Maritime Forums. ENGR. ENRICO FERRE…
About half of the world’s seaborne trade passes through the South China Sea (SCS) valued at US$5.3 trillion annually. The SCS dispute has the potential to overturn the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the constitution for the earth’s oceans and seas. For the Philippines, at stake in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) are: (1) 80%…
My involvement in the Spratlys, South China Sea and West Philippine Sea issue goes back a long way. As a junior officer, fresh from the Naval Academy, I was part of a secret mission sometime in 1971. I transported troops,weapons, equipment and supplies to the islands we occupied in Freedomland, now called the Kalayaan Island Group.
“I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, and all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.” (John Masefield)
I will delve on a topic I developed for the 4th Xiangshan Forum held in Beijing, China on ‘Nov 16-18, 2012 covering new approaches and ideas for strategic mutual trust in the Asia-Pacific region. This is essentially a summary of my paper, with citations deleted for brevity.