A small contingent of Filipino marines standing watch on the derelict BRP Sierra Madre at Ayungin Shoal is essentially what’s keeping an imperialist behemoth at bay, riling bully China to no end.
Bluntly speaking, China’s wily leaders can’t get over the fact that the plucky Filipinos had and are continuing to do so put one over them, causing them to keep losing face.
Red-faced China, of course, is expected to escalate her bullying. She can’t realize her hegemonic ambitions while Ayungin Shoal is in Filipino hands. And we aren’t backing down.
The BRP Sierra Madre and the marine garrison will continue to stand on Ayungin, vows the military.
Undoubtedly, Ayungin Shoal is a dangerous flashpoint, requiring nimble tactics and strategies.
Admittedly, many too are doubting we have the wherewithal to fend off future water cannonades on our boats supplying provisions for the hardy marines.
Yet, our recent loud, internationally publicized disclosures of gratuitous attacks on our ships appear to be working, not only damaging China’s reputation worldwide but also isolating her.
On that alone, we Filipinos have put mighty China in her place, encouraging us never to belittle our unique form of resistance.
Oftentimes, however, security analysts tell us that even if the country is somehow succeeding in defying hypocritical and duplicitous China, our leaders better hunker down and figure out what to do next.
Going by what previous Filipino leaders did, in fact, at Ayungin Shoal in 1999 convinces us that this country and its leaders can forge ingenious ways to counter Chinese “gray zone” or short-of-war tactics.
In itself, the Sierra Madre’s intentional 1999 grounding to stake our claim to Ayungin Shoal was a stroke of sheer genius.
Authoritative accounts have it that the beaching idea came from the military’s senior leadership then, particularly former Navy Chief Eduardo Santos, who a few days after the grounding flew to the Sierra Madre to congratulate the ship’s crew on a job well done.
An irate China demanded the tank landing ship’s removal. But then President Joseph Estrada put on his acting hat and “feigning ignorance, promised to tow the vessel away as soon as it could safely be towed off the reef.” The ship was never towed.
Though the Navy’s derelict ship today is in dire straits, the Sierra Madre remains in commission and is still an official extension of Philippine sovereign territory. Any attack on the ship is tantamount to war.
Since 1999, China has kept close patrols around the Sierra Madre while putting other inordinate pressures on succeeding Philippine governments.
In January 2014, for instance, China offered to withdraw from Scarborough Shoal in return for Manila suspending its arbitration bid at the International Tribunal on the South China Sea.
But, as the Aquino Cabinet debated the deal, the Chinese coast guard resumed sentry duty near the Sierra Madre. When the Aquino government thumbed down the deal, China on 9 March 2014 blockaded for the first time two Filipino resupply boats steaming towards the Sierra Madre.
In instituting the blockade, China used the convenient excuse which she is still using that the Filipino boats were transporting building materials to reinforce the Sierra Madre.
Nowadays, many, including clueless senators, are up in arms over last week’s water cannon attack.
The attack was the second to use water cannons on Filipino civilian resupply boats.
On 16 November 2021, two Filipino civilian boats delivering provisions to the Sierra Madre were blocked and blasted with water by three Chinese coast guard vessels.
That brazen attack forced pro-China President Duterte to reinvigorate the Philippine-US security alliance.
Recent Chinese aggression, some Filipino China apologists insist, was caused by this government’s recent embrace of America.
More likely, however, the recent aggression was no more than the hissy fit of a frustrated power that often calms down once the Philippine-US security alliance is invoked, as on 24 March 2014 when then-US President Barack Obama expressly warned Chinese leader Xi Jinping against using force at Ayungin Shoal.