Philippines may need to review South China Sea strategy, say experts

Showing restraint not the answer as China gets increasingly aggressive, they say

- Mara Cepeda

The Philippines has exercised restraint in its recent response over ongoing maritime clashes with China, say analysts, in what they describe as Manila’s attempt to de-escalate tensions and avoid triggering war over a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.

The Philippines needs to rethink how it deals with an increasingly aggressive Beijing, observers say, after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said Manila still wants to peacefully settle its dispute with China despite a clash on June 17 between the Philippine Navy and blade-bearing members of the Chinese coast guard.

“The whole issue here is China was able to get away with it because the Philippine forces exercised self-restraint, so the situation did not erupt into anything bigger,” maritime security expert Collin Koh of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore told The Straits Times.

“If that is the type of restraint that was being directed from the top, then it might have been excessive. There was a desire to err on the side of caution, but I don’t know whether it is in fact counter-productive or productive because it actually emboldened the Chinese,” added Dr Koh.

Sticking to its months-long strategy of exposing Chinese behaviour in the disputed sea, Manila was quick to release videos of the Chinese coast guard ramming and boarding the Philippine Navy’s inflatable boats, and brandishing knives, machetes and even a pickaxe, as the Chinese side aimed to disrupt a resupply mission for Philippine troops stationed on the Second Thomas Shoal.