MANILA – “With this show of force and active engagement of our allies and partners, ‘Sama Sama’ transcends mere military exercises,” Philippine Navy Chief Rear Admiral Toribio Adaci said during the recent opening of large-scale naval exercises with allied nations in the South China Sea.
As many as 1,800 participants from the United States, a Philippines’ treaty ally, as well as strategic partners such as Japan, Great Britain and Canada are taking part in ‘Samasama’ drills, which will last two weeks and include anti-submarine warfare, search and rescue operations, air defense drills and land phases.
Australia, France, New Zealand and Indonesia sent observers to the exercises, which are taking place in the southern part of the island of Luzon and will run until October 13.
Although China has not been explicitly mentioned by any of the participants, the nature of the annual exercises left little to the imagination. Shortly before the exercises kicked off, Philippine Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro compared the Asian superpower to a “schoolyard bully” amid a series of incidents in the South China Sea in recent months.
Meanwhile, Philippine Department of Justice and the country’s Solicitor General are also exploring a new international arbitration case against China over the latter’s alleged harassment of Philippine vessels, including the pointing of a “military grade” laser at Filipino sailors, water cannon blasting of Philippine supply vessels and unilaterally imposing barriers around the contested Scarborough Shoal – as well as environmental destruction in Manila-claimed areas.
Buoyed by international support and guided by an increasingly assertive Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, the Southeast Asian nation is taking the fight to China through a new two-pronged strategy that combines maritime defense with legal warfare and promises to rile the neighboring superpower.
China has repeatedly dismissed the Philippines’ complaints in the area and recently warned it against any provocation in the hotly disputed maritime region.
China’s foreign ministry recently placed the blame on Manila for a recent spike in tensions, saying “The current maritime conflicts between China and the Philippines are mainly caused by the Philippine side constantly stirring up troubles and spreading false information.”
China is also set to conduct its own military exercises in the South China Sea in a fresh flex to dissuade rivals from challenging its sweeping claims across the vital international waterway. Peeved by Beijing’s perceived as reckless behavior and harsh statements, Philippine authorities have increasingly dispensed with diplomatic niceties
“I cannot think of any clearer case of bullying than this,” said the Harvard-trained Teodoro. “It’s not the question of stealing your lunch money, but it’s really a question of stealing your lunch bag, your chair and even enrollment in school,” he added colorfully, signaling an increasingly hawkish response to China’s actions in sea.
Ahead of this month’s ‘Sama Sama’ naval drills, US Pacific Command chief Vice Admiral Karl Thomas warned that the sovereign rights of smaller nations such as the Philippines are “under attack every day on the high seas.”
“There’s no better way to ensure sovereignty and security than to sail and to operate together,” Thomas said, emphasizing the need for upholding a “rules-based international order” amid efforts by revisionist powers to establish a new order that “benefit[s] not all nations but one nation.”
“I am confident that no potential aggressor should be under any illusion other than this is a strong team of nations, a strong team of navies … one navy sailing and operating together,” the US naval official added.
Filipino authorities also welcomed the exercises as a means to deter further Chinese assertiveness.
“From territorial defense to countering transnational crimes, ‘Sama Sama’ [helps] us to face an array of threats together,” declared the chief of the Philippine Navy, Vice Admiral Toribio Adaci Jr, at the exercises’ opening ceremony.
The Philippine Navy chief said that the Sama Sama exercise “equips us to face an array of threats together”, although he didn’t explicitly single out China. Frigates from the Philippines and US will be joined by a Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force destroyer and the Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Vancouver.
The Philippines is also reportedly exploring another round of quadrilateral joint patrols with the US, Australia and Japan in the coming months. The US Pentagon will also have expanded access to Philippine bases, including facilities near Taiwan, while Japan is negotiating its own Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with Manila.
Moreover, the Philippines is exploring new rounds of legal warfare (lawfare) against China. Marcos Jr’s top legal advisers are now considering filing a new international arbitration case against China over the latter’s alleged environmental crimes in the Manila-occupied Iroquois Reef in the Spratly Islands as well as “other incidents and the overall situation in the [South China Sea].”
According to former Philippine Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, who has advised several Filipino presidents over the South China Sea disputes, the Marcos Jr administration could bid to build on the country’s earlier arbitration case.
Back in 2016, an arbitral tribunal at The Hague formed under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), not only ruled out China’s sweeping ‘nine-dash line’ claims covering much of the South China Sea, but also censured the Asian superpower for harassment of Filipino vessels as well as widespread environmental destruction in the area through gigantic reclamation projects.
Carpio told the author, the Philippines can seek reparations for financial damages caused by China and, if necessary, even seek the seizure of assets of state-owned Chinese companies in Western nations accordingly in the absence of compliance with any final ruling in favor of the Southeast Asian nation.
As in a decade earlier, the Philippines can also rely on compulsory arbitration mechanisms (Article 287 under the UNCLOS) to proceed with a new arbitration case.
Philippine authorities are under no illusions. They know that China will continue to dismiss any international arbitration case, at least publicly, as it did with the 2016 ruling. Nevertheless, many in Manila believe that something drastic has to be done to restrain China’s behavior and that an additional arbitration case could at least cajole Beijing to the negotiation table.
One major area of concern, for instance, is preventing China from disrupting any efforts by the Philippines to reinforce its fragile position in the Second Thomas Shoal, where a Philippine marine detachment is precariously stationed over the dilapidated BRP Sierra Madre ship.
Moreover, the Marcos Jr administration is intent on pressing ahead with energy exploration activities in the Reed Bank, which falls within China’s nine-dash line.
By leveraging the threat of a new arbitration case, one that would likely be supported by its allies, the Philippines hopes to gain some bargaining power in the South China Sea.
Crucially, it could also allow President Marcos Jr, whose approval ratings suffered a double-digit decline amid rising food costs, to burnish his credential at home, especially amid deepening anti-Beijing sentiments in the Philippines.