We are one only as the seas that divide us

OUR country, the Philippines, has had more than its fair share of influences in its historical nurturing, beginning more than 500 years ago with the Spanish imperialists and the world wars to dictatorial regimes and people power uprisings. Yet if there is one great influence that we have often overlooked in our history books and throughout the development of our country, it is the lands that we stand on and the waters that we have sailed. How our seas, mountains and islands have ultimately defined our identity, our politics, our history and even our fate.

If you come back to look at it, the Philippines as a sovereign state never seemed to have had a collective sense of identity as what it means to be a Filipino. How, even up to this day, it has been quite a challenge to define terms like Filipino architecture, Filipino design, Filipino food and Filipino fashion because of the vast diversity of our cultures and languages, as well as the Spanish American colonial influence that we were placed under hundreds of years ago. Yet, further analyzing the roots of how this came to be, it is ultimately because the Philippines as it is has always been an open island right in between two great open waters of huge economic trade and political influence — the Pacific Ocean to our east and the contentious South China (West Philippine) Sea. These great oceans have always been pervaded by ships and trades coming from countries like China and all the way to Western countries like the United States, two of the world’s modern-day superpowers. The Philippines had just been placed in such a convenient geographic location that welcomes any conquistador from taking advantage of our naturally rich islands and seas. How, even to this day, we are continually facing threats on the sovereignty of our islands and waters as the Chinese continue to occupy this convenient trade route that would allow their merchant and naval ships to cruise smoothly from the ports of China to the Indian Ocean. The Philippines has been such suitable gateway for economic and military operations that despite regaining our independence in 1946, US ports and naval bases have persisted within Subic Bay.