Photo supplied
But it is glory ever, when thou art wronged, For us, thy sons to suffer and die. (Aming ligaya nang pag may mang-aapi Ang mamatay ng dahil sa iyo). — Last two lines of the Philippine National Anthem Lupang Hinirang
THERE are many who believe that if China decides to invade the Philippines, we would fail to defend our shores against an attack because our military forces are simply outmatched by the vaunted People’s Liberation Army (PLA) that is said to be the second most powerful in the world.
So, they say, the need for allies, especially from the United States of America. But do we really need American forces based here that could attack China from our country? This would surely get us bombed or even nuked so much like when Japan in its imperialistic goals came to occupy our islands in order to neutralize American military might in this part of the world.
So to avoid an invasion or attack by China, it is imperative that we build an independent national defense not tied to the United States. Yet the question that arises is whether such a plan can be done.
But of course, it can. Just ask our neighbor Vietnam. It has no defense treaty with the US and gets no military aid from Washington. Still it stands up to China and even fought a war with its nuclear-armed neighbor in 1979.
The truth is that Vietnam’s defense challenges are far greater than ours—having a land border with China while we have hundreds of miles of open sea safeguarding us. And subjugating an archipelago like the Philippines would require multiple air, sea and land operations over at least a dozen major islands and many smaller ones.
Even with its territorial frictions with China, Vietnam never sought Western help. In a situation threatened by Chinese aggression, the Philippines would be like the Greek peninsula during the times when the huge Persian Empire under King Darius III and his successor Cyrus the Great eyed Hellenic subjugation.
The tiny Greek city states united to defend its freedom and triumphed over the invading Persians at the battles of Marathon and Salamis. And let us recall how the ill-equipped Vietcong eventually became victorious against US Forces during the Vietnam War.
So we ask again, can we defend our shores by ourselves? We believe we can. Still, in order to do this, we should know the important components that are required for our independent defense policy.
Firstly, the threats we face should be reduced and this can be accomplished by addressing sources of friction and conflict with other nations. To put it in the words of our beloved President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr., we should be “friend to all and enemy to none.” Secondly, we are blessed with a country that is composed of thousands of islands—making it very difficult for any invading force to fully take control the whole archipelago.
We have seen this when the Japanese took over early in the Pacific War. Our brave guerillas disrupted the Japanese Imperial Army’s timetable so American forces were able to recover from the initial shock of the Japanese blitzkrieg and finally send the Japanese war machine to its knees. Finally, we should realize that bringing American forces into the country en masse and letting them use the 10 bases of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) under the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) would escalate the war threat against us by turning our land, sea and air into platforms for US military action in Asia.
Even Washington’s war scenarios acknowledge that bases used by American forces would be targeted by China’s People’s Liberation Army ahead of or during conflict with the US, so it is important for us to avoid landing in the PLA’s missile sites.
* * *
