Your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, good morning.   Thank you for this opportunity to share the Philippine viewpoint on securing regional waterways and the progress that has been made.  My discussion takes into account two key ideas that impact on the topic at hand.  First, our connectivity as nations because of our waterways, and second, the emerging importance of defence roles vis-à-vis development goals as evidenced by our own experience in the Philippines. 

 

Our viewpoint is that the same framework of defence for development can push our regular progress to secure our waterways and our nations as well.  The current trend in securing our regional waters is bilateral cooperation.  Much progress has been made in the areas of international dialogue, policy making and diplomacy. But we must ask ourselves if this is enough. 

 

Our assured experience over recent times point to an emerging reality that any threat to our regional waterways is a threat to each of our countries.  The same reality must mobilise us regional cooperation that goes beyond the bilateral standard of our times.  This need for a larger scale alliance is informed by the basic fact we are connected by an invisible reality: the sea. 

 

In Southeast Asia the sea is not the common void that divides but a medium that unites as hosts to the world’s most vital sea links of transport and commerce, our religion connects the cultures and commerce of east and west.  This connection has shaped our history.  Without the method of oceanic travel and trade, the entire connectedness of the economies and peoples of Southeast Asia would not have been even made possible much less sustained. 

 

This interconnectivity defines our reality today.  It is true the freedom of movement, as associated with the freedom of the sea, afforded by Governments and international institutions that we become part of one interdependent and globalised world system.  This interconnectedness directs our future actions as one region, and the same connection also threatens our security as individual nations and as one region. 

 

While the freedom of sea has enabled economic activity to flourish, the same principle that allows trans-national security threats to develop sophisticated forms of operation.  When one establishes the links between this trans-national criminal elements and terrorism, the gravity of the challenge before us becomes even more vicious. 

 

To confront these threats in an economically interdependent and socially connected world, we must go beyond unilateral and traditional methods.  In this new evolving security environment it is no longer sufficient for security forces to just fight and win wars, be it on land or at sea.  We have to confront the security challenges not only in the military context of war, but in the larger socio-economic and cultural contacts. 

 

The good news is that we do not have to look beyond our regional borders to address these challenges within the larger context of our connectivity.  Over time our connectivity as neighbours and allies, by virtue of our waterways has provided the building blocks we need to secure our regional waters on a forward-thinking, long-term basis. 

 

Maritime security has been the focus of cooperative dialogue that has built the foundation for a new dimension in regional interaction.  With the vision of establishing a nation community by 2020, the Asian Defence Ministerial Meeting of three year war program includes the promotion of measures to enhance maritime security as one key work area. 

 

We also have experience of the success of the Straits of the Malacca in the security initiative which reduced the incidents of piracy in the world’s basis ceilings by 99%.

 

The world benefited further from this cooperation with the establishment of an effective template for adoption of similar mechanisms.  We also have the learnings from the creation of the information-sharing centre in vision and the regional cooperation agreement against piracy in the Asia-Pacific. 

 

The ISC’s clear manifestation of our communal resolve to activate concrete and effective mechanism to address the threats against the free-flow of goods and people across national boundaries.  This development is in responding to maritime security challenges and maximising opportunities for cooperation in the region for a timely opportunity.  The employment of defence forces in general and the maritime forces in particular for regional security concerns. 

 

With so much space to control and violative laws to enforce, the involvement of naval forces in maritime law enforcement and socio-economic development, on a trans-national basis will continue to grow.  This is made urgent by the need to develop ways to pre-empt threats rather than respond to them.  Prevention is a more cost-efficient investment in regional maritime security vis-à-vis the prospect of addressing the after effects of threats that become real. 

 

In specific, with the Philippine situation, we have learned that prevention by propagating development initiatives helps to minimise, if not totally eradicate, the threats and the roots of such threats.  In the Philippines it is our policy to address the physical manifestations of the threat, but alongside this we put equal importance in addressing the conditions that goes and sustain its existence.  It is in this context that president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued the directive to eradicate terrorists and insurgents by 2010 to enable a psychologically and physically secure environment for economic growth. 

 

It is in this posit of achieving the goals and objectives of this policy that we have activated the spectrum approach of roles for the defence forces.  From a functional standpoint, the role of the defence forces in maritime law enforcement operations in particular involves deterrence, detection and inter-detection.   We now apply our traditional capabilities for expanded roles in law enforcement and national development.  That is why the policy of the Philippines Department of National Defence is now anchored on defence for development. 

Using the synergy of military might and Government means we are eliminating the threats on land and on sea and bringing basic health, education and infrastructure to more communities in simultaneous efforts.  This agenda puts defence in a leading role in the Government’s campaign to permanently rid the country of insurgence and terrorists by pouring development efforts in the countryside preventing this wretch from taking root. 

 

The first point of development sets the framework for lasting solutions, insurgency, poverty and illiteracy in our country, and the same framework can provide a lasting solution to piracy, terrorism and other security threats in our waterways and our region. 

 

The basics of this framework were put to the test in the Philippines in what is now known as oplan ultimatum.   The world witnessed the fall of the elusive leaders of the Abu Sayyaf group and several military encounters in the island of Lore in southern Philippines.  What the world did not see were the operations that applied the combination of hard and soft approaches towards terrorism.  The critical task was to win the confidence of the people long assailed by conflict in the law, sustained civil military operations and humanitarian assistance projects were undertaken to address the roots of the conflict. 

 

After months of rebuilding communities through infrastructure and development, medical missions and community dialogues, and improved atmosphere of trust between the people and the government has evolved. This heightened level of interaction led to a constriction of the previously unhampered operations of the Abu Sayyaf group.  Information on their whereabouts started to flow to our defence forces from the communities themselves and parallel to this development programs sustained combat operations on land and effective control of the surrounding seas further constricted the operational perimeter.

 

Naval units, in addition to their traditional roles, acted as law enforcers to control the sea.  The enemies’ traditional escape route from any area of land.  Law and order at sea became the norm and this benefited the communities in the areas protected by our navy as they were able to go about their livelihood in peace. 

 

It is this combination of development talent and military tools that led to the fall of the top leaders of the ESG. 

 

Effective sea control, a greater intelligence, precise combat operations, sustained Government presence and multi-faceted development actions all contributed to the success of oplan ultimatum.

 

The positive outcome reflects the power of convergence of roles and authorities.  This was all about defence led programs working in full measure to enable development goals. 

 

Another particular project that dispersed was security and economic targets, is the pioneering [Cosworth South?].  This defence-led multi-agency arrangement for surveillance and response for the waters of Southern Philippines, responds to the need to secure Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, East Asia growth, area potential for growth and development.  This experience has lent credence to our proposition that defence for development makes even more sense on the regional scenario, particularly because mainly for citizens depend on this and need security to make a living and build their future. 

 

Thus utilising defence actions for development purposes must be incorporated in defence policy making to which the Philippines has already taken the first step.  Only when the strategic goal of institutionalising the maritime security structure for developing communities and nations in the region is in place can our national gains against our enemies be sustained. 

 

We can confidently say that the region has already developed working templates for cooperation in securing regional waterways through the various bilateral arrangements.  These interrelationships underscore the obvious: the time is right to secure this jointly, not only as military precaution, but as a national economic policy and an international interdependence initiative. 

 

In closing, I go back to the topic at hand; the question of securing regional waterways is not only about how much we have done, but more importantly how much more we can do together.  The answer to the question is also the challenge we must face together.  The progress in securing regional waterways has been far-reaching with a multitude of partnerships now activated.  The same progress and cooperative action must inspire us to build a larger alliance given our connectivity and the attendant inter-dependence that comes with it.  Defence for development has an agenda and a vision for a truly regional maritime alliance captures the importance of maximising available defence resources on a communal basis for sheer growth and development results. 

Now is the time to make collective might and means work to secure this is and enable more growth in the region, together it will work for us all on the level and within the square.