Last September 6, President Aquino signed Executive Order 57 which creates the National Coast Watch System (NCWS) in order to protect Philippine territory from emergent threats to maritime security. NCWS head Paquito Ochoa states that the executive order “emphasizes the government’s firm commitment to prioritize maritime security in the country”… “in the face of maritime challenges” such as terrorism, piracy, drug and persons trafficking, and environmental degradation.
Interestingly, these challenges are different from the traditional challenges to territorial integrity; are instead “transnational” as opposed to international and are therefore propagated by societal actors. These challenges are characteristically “non-traditional” and therefore non-military in nature.
Theoretically, the move is a good one because it expands the scope of Coast Watch South established in 2006 in order to protect choke points in the southern Philippines. The NCWS thus elevates the government’s concern for maritime security from an island based locus to archipelagic.
The move positively reflects a discursive shift and a re-framing of national security thinking that is oriented toward transnational threats, which include illegal acts hatched at a place of origin but which are connected to another place and of which consequences are elsewhere.
The speed by which these threats are transmitted in a globalizing world increases the vulnerability of nation-states, thereby requiring an approach based on a “culture of embedded security.” This is an interesting term used by Vice Admiral Emilio Malayag, former deputy chief of staff, when he articulates an ideal security structure in a networked world. According to him, embedding security in culture, operationally, consists of effective bureaucratic institutions that enforce rules and laws at the national and local levels. Beyond the armed forces and the police, embedded security envisions highly coordinated regulatory agencies such as the DENR, Customs, Immigration, etc. as well as a credible justice system that enforces laws that apprehend and prevent illegal acts. Embedded security broadens the scope of responsible actors including the private sector which ensure the security of critical public infrastructures such as air and seaports, energy, telecommunications and the mines. It is thus is all about credible domestic law enforcement and the securitization of inland territory and its extensions to Philippine waters, the protection of people and property from threats.
In creating the NCWS, a number of non-traditional threats to our security as a nation is identified: Let me focus on environmental degradation.
The impact of marine and biodiversity depletion is perhaps bigger than the perceived China threat. The former is already happening in a massive scale and currently puts communities and peoples living in the coastal zone and working off the resources in municipal waters at risk. This area of the national territory is open access but is under-regulated and under-prioritized by local governments. Municipal waters include bays, gulfs, and lakes and beyond these bodies of water, all the marine waters measuring at 15 km from the coastlines. These waters provide marine resources including fish, coral reefs, seagrass, and mangroves.
For an archipelagic state, it is ironic that this zone has never been prioritized. Recent news about the wanton gathering of over a hundred sea turtles and black corals, causing destruction of 7,000 hectares of a reef network off Cotabato reveals the unguarded state of these marine territories. A decade ago, Professors Elmer Ferrer and Leonore de la Cruz of the UP’s College of Social Work and Community Development revealed that about 85% of the country’s municipal waters were overfished. While we have been made aware of the best practices at integrated coastal management and institutionalized local law enforcement, continuing reports of mangrove and seabed grass clearing, blast and poison fishing and commercial fishing in municipal waters are just too consistent and too many to be ignored as unfounded.
Two recent news items come to mind. First the fish kill in Taal Lake waters, a national protected area, is blamed on unregulated licensing. In Taal, the task of enforcing fish cage limits rests on the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB), the Batangas Provincial Task Force on Taal Lake and the municipal government. Another recent news item refers to Caceres Archbishop Leonardo Z. Legazpi calling no less than the Chief Executive of the country to enforce a ban on commercial fishing in Ragay Gulf.
A main obstacle to environmental security in municipal waters is the enforcement of the Fisheries Code which authorizes local governments to act as front-line lawmakers and law enforcers of limited entry rules in these vital waters. A co-managed structure of agencies such as the DENR, BFAR, PCG, PNP, and PNP-Maritime Group, and the local Bantay Dagat are expected to work with LGUs in law enforcement.
The concept of a “transnational threat” is abstract to fishers in coastal communities, where the real threat lies in loss of livelihood. Ensuring the security of our bays, gulfs and lakes, and municipal waters from illegal activities embeds a culture of security in these more proximate waters. It is an objective that requires down-to-earth actions from local and national governments and law enforcing agencies, a precondition to a response based on the securitization of a larger encompass of Philippine waters. As soon as we get our act in this sphere of governance together, then we can start to talk about “maritime security.”
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Source: Business World, October 10, 2011
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