Despite the Philippines winning the arbitration case over the South China Sea in 2016 with the United Nations favoring them and China's nine-dash line invalidated, China still has not conceded with the decision and continues to insist its claims. The current government, the Du30 admin approach to the problem receives massive backlashes from its people and other members of the government suggesting strong claims as to what is the best course of action the government should immediately do to better address and resolve the controversy. The irony is clear. During the preceding administration headed by P'Noy, where he teamed up with the US to fight China, it was manifested how the dispute was not resolved with the Philippines being aggressive towards the issue yet the people still insist this tactic. Meanwhile, the current administration's acts are complete contradictions to the preceding government's actions. Although befriending China to alleviate the tension might be a smarter move than being equally aggressive with a country more powerful than us, it is a scheme that is very dangerous, risky, and has very little to zero guaranteed positive outcome. This possibility of calculated failures has been strengthened given the commotion involving Filipino fishermen and a Chinese vessel this year, April. If not any of these approaches are working, what should the government do to better address the issue? Are we going to continue being useless watchdogs of our abode watching invaders perpetuate what's supposed to be ours? How do we preserve our values as a country such as freedom, happiness, and justice? What is the point of getting favored in the jurisdiction provided be the UN and having rights over something if we are not powerful enough to fight for it?
The answer to the premise is simple, we need to gain more power to be able to to exert dominance. The only way we can shoo away these invaders is by becoming more powerful than every other country asserting their claims. To be able to gain this power, we have to work together. The solidarity we Filipinos resemble during "Bayanihan" is what we need to elevate. We are a nation, we fight for one purpose.