China tensions ripping political rifts in the Philippines

MANILA – The latest skirmish in the South China Sea, which saw Chinese maritime forces forcibly boarding then disarming Philippine navy personnel on a resupply mission, has jolted the Philippine government and exposed fault lines in President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s once-unified administration.

By all indications, the latest Philippine rotation and resupply (RoRe) mission to the contested Second Thomas Shoal, which hosts a de facto Philippine military base atop the grounded BRP Sierra Madre vessel, was not coordinated among relevant government agencies.

The Philippine government’s contradictory statements after the unprecedented incident, which could have easily triggered an armed confrontation after a Filipino serviceman lost a thumb in the ensuing melee, have underscored divergent views at the highest echelons of power on how to handle China’s rising assertiveness in the nation’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

With details of the incident trickling in after days of delay, the Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who leads the newly created National Maritime Council, broadly dismissed the incident as “probably a misunderstanding or an accident” even as other top officials condemned it with strong language.

Shortly after, Philippine Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr, however, insisted that the government was not downplaying the “aggressive and illegal use of force” by China. He maintained that what took place was “[a] deliberate act of the Chinese officialdom to prevent [the Philippines] from completing [its] mission.”

To be sure, political divisions amid a geopolitical crisis are nothing new to the Philippines, which is notorious for its noisy and fractious democracy.

Back in 2012, Filipino senators publicly