What if the country lost a city of 16,000 hectares, the size of Quezon City, with all the people we  love, the resources and services we value now and in our collective futures? That is exactly the size of the reef area that the Philippines has lost in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) with China’s encroachment.  

What exactly are we at great risk of losing? With our southern neighbors in the Coral Triangle, the Philippines accounts for close to 40% of the world’s total reef fishes. The WPS holds thirty percent of  the country’s coral reefs and contributes to 27% of our country’s commercial fisheries production. That is about a third of our marine heritage – a vital part of the natural vault where our biological and historical lives as a people are anchored. The carbon it holds controls pollution, and the  maintenance of other elements like oxygen, nitrogen, silica and sulfur are vital in the productivity and stability of the area. In terms of the diversity of marine species, it reigns supreme across marine  ecosystems in the world.  

Starting around 2014, China has conducted large-scale island reclamation, turning reefs into military installations claiming these as part of their territory. The 2016 ruling of the Arbitral Tribunal, constituted by the Convention on the Laws of the Sea, denies this claim therefore upholding the Philippines' right to the territory. We are known in the world as a people who deeply care about each other and for the places that sustained and  nurtured us. That means it is our fundamental right and responsibility to forge a path to holding and  affirming our identity, anchored in natural heritage, and move to protect it. 

This is why we strongly resonate with the recommendation of environment policy and governance expert Dr. Ben Malayang III, that the WPS be declared by the Philippine government as a protected seascape through existing instruments and mechanisms, and also be included into the ASEAN Heritage Park Protected Area system and the UNESCO World Heritage List.

No armed tension in history anywhere has ever registered gains in natural or social values. We stand for peace while affirming our position to protect WPS ,which is an irreplaceable part of not just our territory but who we are, as a people. Declaring the West Philippine Sea as a marine protected area is a definitive move in the service of life – ours and the marine environment it vitally depends on.