Part of Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr.’s wishes — if wishes came true — would be for the Philippines, its allies, and partners to hold China accountable for aggressive actions in the South China Sea through a United Nations Security Council resolution “condemning China and ordering it to stop.”
But Teodoro, a political veteran and a two-time defense chief, is quick to go back down to earth.
“Naturally, if you could ask me three wishes, it would be a security council or a resolution condemning China and ordering it to stop. But the world is not that perfect,” the Philippine defense chief said Tuesday, August 27, on the sidelines of the United States Indo-Pacific Command’s International Military Law and Operations (MILOPS) conference in Manila.
Teodoro, who has executive supervision of the Philippine military, urged defense and security minds in the room to consider dynamism in responding to a force like China and its aggressive expansionist dreams in the South China Sea.
“We have to tailor our operations to include our [Mutual Defense Treaty] to meet this dynamism,” he added, referring to the decades-old treaty that binds the US and the Philippines.
He also did not hold back in urging more — and stronger — international support for the Philippines, as China steadily uses more and more force in asserting its claims in the South China Sea.
“The antidote is a stronger collective multilateral action against China. And that is for our diplomats and other responsible officials to determine,” he added.
Whenever an incident between the Philippines and China in the West Philippine Sea takes place (and there are a lot — four in the past week alone), countries like Philippine treaty-ally the US, partners like Japan and Australia, and “like-minded” countries and blocs including the European Union, the United Kingdom, and South Korea, among others, are fairly quick to issue statements criticizing Beijing and expressing support for Manila.
Notably absent from that roster of quick-responding countries are nearby neighbors who are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Teodoro said “we are getting some consensus” in the bloc, pointing out that ASEAN delegates to MILOPS were “paying attention.”
And after saying that international call-outs were simply “not enough,” Teodoro added: “ASEAN, to remain relevant and credible, cannot continue to ignore what China is doing in the South China Sea.”
ASEAN has been criticized for keeping mum on security issues in the region, particularly when it involves China and the South China Sea. Several ASEAN members are claimants in the vast expanse of the South China Sea, which Beijing claims without basis as its own.
Experts have no consensus on what needs to be done — there’s a school of thought that the bloc is not built for security talk, while there’s another (which Teodoro clearly belongs to) that has cautioned the bloc from staying silent on issues that affect not only its members, but also the greater Indo-Pacific.
The situation in the South China Sea, especially in an area the Philippines calls the West Philippine Sea, is getting more tense by the day. In August 2024 alone, the Philippines recorded over six incidents of harassment from China both in the air and at sea.
But a UN Security Council resolution is, for the most part, nearly out of the question.
China is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, considered the most powerful body of the UN that is tasked with maintaining “international peace and security in accordance with the principles and purposes of the United Nations.” Permanent membership means China has veto power in the council.
Besides, the Philippines has a more pressing goal: to become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the term 2027-2028, or until the end of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s administration. And who knows, once that’s secured, maybe Secretary Teodoro can hope to make just this one big dream come true. – Rappler.com