EDITORIAL - China crisis and the next president

As if there is not already a surfeit of domestic problems to keep the next president elected in 2016 busy, there is also that no-longer-to-be-ignored foreign problem that is fast becoming a foreign crisis, and which will likely have to fall squarely on the lap of who emerges winner in May -- the conflict with China over competing claims in the South China Sea.

How the Philippines has handled the issue so far is both good and bad. Good in that we elevated it to the proper forum where a legal decision can be awaited even if China may not abide by such decision but bad in relying mainly on the mere assurances of protection from the United States. This having done both good and bad on the issues does not leave the Philippines on very solid footing.

Not having a very solid footing on such a shaky issue means a lot of balancing acts have to be made, and a lot of wise and crucial decisions must be demanded from the next president. In other words, whoever becomes the next president needs to have the full measure of his or her wits. We can't afford any half-baked also-runs at the helm of our ship of state.

And yet, the Filipino people, or at least the active electorate in this country that is attuned to the political vibes now taking shape, have not seemed to be anywhere near interested in how the next president hopes to handle and address the South China Sea crisis. This crisis does not simply involve mere name-calling, as when we rename parts of the South China Sea as West Philippine Sea.

We can name whole oceans after us for all we care but if in truth and in fact we do not own them, or they are not recognized as ours, what difference really does that make. Take West Philippine Sea -- no other country on earth calls the area we refer to as such. In effect, all we have done is to confuse the world over a matter that is supported more by whimsy than fact.

On the other hand, the South China Sea can stay South China Sea for all we care, but if we get to have what is there that is rightfully ours, who cares about what the sea where it is found is called. The problem is that we are too cosmetic in our approach. Well, that approach may need to have an overhaul after May 2016 when the next president steps in.

So how about right now asking all those interested in the presidency to stop dwelling in their own posturing and basking in useless surveys. Why don't we start picking their minds on how they stand on the all important looming foreign crisis that is certain to engulf all of our attention in the coming years, if not months. Let us not lull ourselves into complacency and get caught by surprise.