Lorenzana's bellyaching

Defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana finds irritating the continued incursions of Chinese warships into Philippine territorial waters. Irritating indeed. And we do not even need a Lorenzana to describe the feeling to us. The question is, what is he doing about it? We cannot just go on exchanging sorry tales and wounded feelings.

Lorenzana is the most powerful person in the defense establishment, second only to President Duterte himself, the commander-in-chief. He too has a finger on the Philippine military arsenal, whatever state of might that arsenal may be. If a foreign force, regardless of size or intent, makes a foray into our territory without so much as a hi or hello, our forces are duty-bound to at least scramble and see what the intruders are up to.

It is not enough for Lorenzana to just expose the incursions and then later to bellyache about them. He should have sent the BRP del Pilar and BRP Alcaraz, two mothballed Coast Guard cutters donated by the United States which Nonoy Aquino loved to call "warships" to intercept the intruders, just like what he did during a maritime police operation against Chinese poachers in the South China Sea that precipitated this whole mess with China.

Lorenzana should not be afraid to intercept any Chinese warships if they happen to be in Philippine territory without permission. Such situations are different to confrontations in the South China Sea. In the South China Sea, even if a confrontation takes place in an area declared to be legally ours by an arbitral ruling, we have to consider the Chinese position because China does not recognize the ruling and will likely resist any move we take.

But if an incursion happens within our clearly defined sovereign territory, the Philippines is duty-bound to intercept any intruder and escort it out of our borders, if we want the incident to escalate no further. Or we can try to blast it out of the water if we want a little more excitement. If China has done the same thing to us in waters contested by many nations, why can we not do it to China right in our very own kitchen?

China has previously warned it will go to war if push comes to shove in the South China Sea. And I think it will too. More than anything else, China desperately wants the South China Sea for its fish. With more than 1.3 billion mouths to feed, China has no choice but to flex its muscles for food. It is backed into a corner in this piece of salty real estate. China fears it will collapse if more than a billion people go hungry and riot.

That is why Duterte is wary of provoking China over the South China Sea even if Philippine claims to portions of it are legally and historically valid. He is just being practical in accordance with the call of the situation, unlike what his gung-ho critics would have him rather do. Having met China's Xi Jinping face-to-face, nobody in the Philippines understands the reality on the ground better than he does.

But Chinese warships sailing through Philippine waters without permission? What the heck is Lorenzana doing just sharing his constipation with media? He is supposed to act like any defense chief would. More than Duterte, he is the one who must call the shots in our defense. In real politics, you do not involve the president in such a situation, not even if he is the commander-in-chief. That is why he has surrogates.