To fear mongers in the Philippines: Who is speaking of going to war?

TO THOSE WHO ARE FEAR MONGERING USING THE LINE THAT WE CANNOT DEFEND OUR TERRITORIES BECAUSE OUR MILITARY IS NOT AS POWERFUL AS CHINA's, that every move we make will be construed by China as an act of going to war: But who is speaking of going to war? 

Have you heard that China has the nasty habit of stealing our territories when we are not looking? Has it occured to you that presence, relentless patrolling of our territorial waters is the next best step against China thievery? Mischief Reef was stolen while the Navy was not looking; Scarborough Shoal was stolen when we withdrew our vessels from that EEZ which belongs to PH; Ayungin Reef is now the target of China's greed and iw waiting to pounce on the Reef when they think no one is looking! 

Under your tenet that because we have a little navy, we cannot do anything, what exactly do you then want to do today? To let China run away with our territories? Magdahilan na konti lang ang bangka natin kaya sige, pabayaan na lang ang ating mga territoryo? Sino ang utak biya ngayon? (To reason out that we have few vessels so, alright, just abandon our territories? Who is being fishbrained now?)

If you really want to use your brains, tell yourself that the presence of a couple of Philippine Navy and the Philippine Coast Guard ships around our blasted reefs may be the next best deterrence. And you don't goddamn need the most sophisticated frigates for that!  The act of patrolling our territorial seas, our Exclusive Economic Zone or showing that we are keeping an eye on our territories does not mean that we want to go to war!

SO REMEMBER AND THINK: PATROL AND PRESENCE may just be the best deterrence you can afford today before China runs off with the rest of the Kalayaan islands!

And if that is not enough, we are telling you today to review the courage and conviction OF AN EVEN SMALLER NAVY THAT WENT RAMMING AGAINST A MIGHTY FLEET IN DEFENCE OF THEIR EXCLUSIVE ECONOMIC ZONE! Huwag magdahilan ng kung ano-ano at huwag manakot na dahil sinasabi natin na magmatigas at magsalita ng matapang ay gusto na natin ng gyera. (Don't use just about any pretext to instill fear in the citizenry that we want war just because we here are being firm and are speaking boldly.)

Eto ang tandaan mo AFP na maski marami na tayong mga military assets, hindi din tayo makikipaggyera dahil hindi dapat giyera ang atupagin. Ang dapat atupagin ay maging pursigidong bantayan ang ating mga isla dahil pag walang bantay, diyan dumarating ang mga magnanakaw. (Remember this AFP: that even if we have so many military assets, we will not go to war because war is not what we should be after. What we should be after is to relentlessly guard our other islets because when no one is guarding, that's when thieves come.)

Another thing, even if China sinks one of our vessels doing its job, it won't mean that we will go to war... the world will be against them if they do that! Huwag utak biya, kaya tayo binabababoy ng ibang bansa ay dahil sa takot tayo! Iyan ang tunay na dahilan! (Don't be fishbrained. The reason why other countries are crapping all over us is because we show fear. That's the real reason!)

So to give fearmongers a bit of courage, we are linking here the story of a tiny, weeny, so tiny but brave navy (in fact, a coast guard) that owned less war boats than the Philippine Navy but which went out of its way to challenge and to go "headbutting" against one of the world's greatest navies to uphold their Exclusive Economic Zone (And guess what? They won!):

HMS Mermaid and FPV Baldur during Cod Wars

A photograph of HMS Mermaid and the Icelandic vessel 'FPV Baldur' 

clashing during the Third Cod War, taken on 26th May 1976.

Contrary to what happened in Scarborough where we backed off and gave China the upper hand because we were frightened that our ships might be rammed or sunk, little, tiny, puny but brave Iceland whose population was ONLY 300,000 (against UK's 50 million at the time) did not have any hesitation and faced off with with Britain's mighty Royal Navy in a series of naval confrontations that were called the Cod Wars (less the firing of naval guns). 

The Cod Wars saw Britain deploying a total of 53 British warships during the operations against 7 Icelandic Patrol vessels and a Catalina flying boat.  

The Cod Wars started when in 1972, Iceland unilaterally declared an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) extending beyond its territorial waters, before announcing plans to reduce overfishing. It policed its quota system with the Icelandic Coast Guard, leading to a series of net-cutting incidents with British trawlers that fished the areas. 

As a result, the Royal Navy deployed warships and tugboats to act as a deterrent against any future harassment of British fishing crews by the Icelandic craft, resulting in direct confrontations between Icelandic patrol vessels and British warships, which included ramming incidents. 

There were numerous ramming incidents between the (UK) Royal Navy and the Icelandic Coast Guard and their trawlers during those Cod Wars. Iceland did not back off in spite of the mighty Royal Navy. 

The latter exercised the renowned naval "follow the rules of the road" tactics at sea and rammed the equally stubborn Icelandic Coast Guard ships. There were NO REAL VIOLENT ARMED confrontations or shootings as in firing of naval guns (other than the cutting of nets, rammed ships and bruised egos) erupted although each one threatened to do it, i.e., fire guns at the other.

Complete story in: China-PH Scarborough Shoal stand off and the UK-Iceland Cod Wars in the North Atlantic

~~ Admins, Defenders of the Philippine Sabah and Spratly Claims
27 May 2013

Related read: President Aquino must now draw a line in the sand http://defenders-philippine-sovereignty.blogspot.com/2013/05/president-aquino-must-now-draw-line-in.html