I am beginning to see where we are going on Benham Rise after President Duterte clarified all the angst generated by the sighting of Chinese ships in the area. Duterte said he actually gave the Chinese permission to be there at Benham Rise, a 13-million-hectare underwater plateau located east of Luzon which the United Nations declared was an extension of our continental shelf and over which we therefore have exclusive sovereign, economic and exploitation rights.
My understanding was bolstered further by the subsequent statement of the Chinese foreign ministry confirming the agreement with Duterte and, more importantly, denying any interest to claim the area as its own other than to exercise the right of navigation and innocent passage. But you may ask why the Chinese would innocently pass there when it is not a normal route for shipping.
The answer is, of course, that they were surveying the area, even if no one is admitting that now. My take on the issue is that Duterte has allowed China to find out what lies underneath Benham Rise and how it can be exploited. And there is where I think we are going. I suspect Duterte is banking on some riches in Benham Rise and for them to be jointly exploited by the Philippines and China.
But why is Duterte allowing China to do the exploring and not any of its traditional allies like the United States or Japan, which can match or even better the capabilities of China to do the job. The answer, again, is simple. The United States and Japan are rivals of China in more ways than one. To allow either to do the exploring might put a damper on the warming relations Duterte has struck with China.
Duterte values his new relationship with China and credits that country for several good things going for his administration, even if he has not been exactly forthright about what these good things are. But they must be good enough for him to at least temporarily ignore the fact that China has bullied the Philippines into submission over their competing claims to islands in the South China Sea.
Duterte's pivot to China is naturally painful to many Filipinos, especially to those who see no one else capable of coming to the aid of the Philippines except the US. But events in the South China Sea have opened many eyes to new realities, with the rudest awakening being the realization that America is never going to war with China over us.
For painful as it may have been to have our tiny claims in the South China Sea snatched away from us by China, it was by far more painful to see our friend the US simply folding its arms while China abused us. Perhaps realizing its mistake, the US is now trying to make up by stepping up naval patrols in the area. But that is a case of doing too little too late. China is not giving up the islands it has seized. And unless it wants war, the US cannot force China to give up the islands.
And so, what we are seeing now is a sort of political version of the Stockholm syndrome. The Philippines, through Duterte, is sidling up to its South China Sea tormentor rather than continue with the illusion of an alliance with the US that never was. With this new outlook, even more inequities have surfaced, such as the difficulty with which Filipinos can enter the US, as opposed to the wide open embrace reserved for people from countries that, ironically, have sworn to destroy America.