BOTOLAN, Zambales—The fight of Filipinos for their sovereign rights over the West Philippine Sea is intended as much to protect their national interest against China’s encroachments into their exclusive economic zone (EEZ) as it is to help establish an international rules-based order against a superpower bully, the citizens’ coalition “Atin Ito” (This is Ours) declared...
Tag: China
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Footprints on Scarborough Shoal
On May 17, 1997, the first group of journalists embarked on an extraordinary expedition to this triangle-shaped coral reef now part of long-running geopolitical tension between the Philippines and China. It was a place few had heard of, let alone visited, at a time when the world was still grappling with dial-up internet and flip...
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‘Atin Ito’ sets new mission to Scarborough Shoal to assert Filipinos’ fishing rights
Four commercial fishing boats carrying some 200 civilian volunteers, journalists, and observers, and about 100 smaller vessels will head to Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough Shoal) on May 15 on a three-day mission to assert the Philippines’ fishing rights in the West Philippine Sea. Leaders of “Atin Ito” (This is Ours), a coalition of social movements,...
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How to take back what’s ours
Surely many Filipinos were startled by footage shown on ANC last week of a Chinese Navy helicopter hovering perilously low over Sandy Cay last March 23. On the ground were Filipino marine scientists doing research on biodiversity and inspecting the apparently poor state of the corals at the sandbar about two nautical miles from the...
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Is the American empire unraveling?
We are not witnessing the last days of the American empire. Its crisis is real, but its trajectory of decline is likely to be protracted and uneven. After the fall of the Soviet bloc in the early 1990s, the United States stood at the apex of the unipolar world, unrivalled both politically and economically. Some...
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War between wars
My parents were shaped by World War II (my father became a young guerrilla and my mother had to flee with her family to their mountain farm), followed soon after by the Korean War (which has not officially ended), and then the Vietnam War, in all of which the Philippines was directly involved. We so-called...
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Momentous Christmas mission stirs Filipinos’ outrage over Chinese aggression
Everyone on board the MV Kapitan Felix Oca—including youth and student leaders, fishers, indigenous peoples, activists, members of civil organizations—knew that the three-day mission to Lawak Island in the Spratlys was fraught with danger. But they signed up, anyway. So that when the first civilian-led mission aimed at bringing Christmas cheer to Filipino troops and...
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Filipino athletes at Asiad eye golds, ticket to 2024 Paris Olympics
The biggest Asian Games (Asiad) in history opens on Sept. 23 in Hangzhou, China, with over 12,000 athletes participating, or more than the 2020 Tokyo Olympics’ 11,420. For the 395 Filipino athletes competing in 37 sports from Sept. 23 to Oct. 8, the 19th edition of the quadrennial event—which was delayed a year due to...
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Marcos urged to push proposed Maritime Zones Act in the face of China’s ‘10-dash’ line map
China’s latest map should not distract the Philippine government from addressing the more “disconcerting” Chinese harassment of Philippine vessels in the West Philippine Sea, according to a foreign affairs and security analyst. If anything, said Lucio B. Pitlo III, the map with a new 10-dash line that still encompasses parts of the Philippines’ 370-kilometer exclusive...
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Gilas Pilipinas trounces China, 96-75, salvages FIBA World Cup pride
It’s one win that meant little in terms of the standing at the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup, but so much for millions of Filipinos unhappy with the state of their national basketball program and aching for relief from a string of defeats. Before an 11,000-plus crowd that packed the Smart-Araneta Coliseum last night (Sept....