Treasure islands: a study on the Philippines' political-economic development strategy for Spratly Islands

Abstract

The Spratly Islands is a collective number of landmasses in South China Sea, that are found to contain "treasures" - that is, vast potential sources of oil deposits and natural gas reserves. But aside from economic advantage, getting a hold of them also connotes a crucial alteration in the political relations between the countries in Southeast Asia. Thus, the need to claim sovereignty over these islands is seen as a challenge to the Philippines especially in facing off other Spratlys claimants including the rising power, China. However, the defenseless Philippines is no match for China's military might. This leads to the clingy dependence on our biggest ally, the United States - which is believed to be our only hope despite the latter's neutral position in the entire dispute. Then again, the United States' own agenda for our country had only brought up urgency in asserting a different kind of sovereignty. The Philippines is therefore another "treasure" which should be fought for in the name of national integrity and development for the Filipino people.