IRENEO V.

BATAGA - PHD STUDENT DATE: April 3, 2023

ANSWER FOR REVIEW QUESTIONS IN MODULE 4-GREEN EDUCATION
SUBMITTED TO: DR. MONA LIZA H. SOLLANO
PROFESSOR
QUESTIONS
1-2

a. ANSWER: The maritime territory that was around or adjacent to the

tiny Philippine-held island of Thitu in the middle of the hotly disputed Spratly
Islands was meant to add significance to Philippine patrimony, as well as
counter China's nine-dash line claims over the entire South China Sea.

In that swath of water, the Philippines has rights to an exclusive economic zone
200 nautical miles (370 km) from the western shores of a country shaped like
an old man holding a cane -- the cane being the island province of Palawan,
which juts out into the South China Sea and is today at the center of the
territorial wrangling brought on by Chinese aggression. For a country that had
taken maritime zones for granted, Palawan is the West Philippine Sea.
While there is evidently no fight against the might of a giant neighbor that has
succeeded in building artificial islands dredged from the bottom of the sea near
the Philippines, China's claims have upset the regional balance.

For the Philippines, naming these waters the West Philippine Sea was as an act
of defiance, an unusual move for a people with a tendency to shape their
boundaries only from within, in alignment with its political ethnographic clans.
To many, anything beyond the daily business of the islands seems opaque.

And there is no telling how much Filipinos understood this: a name to stir
patriotism, a geographical concept that's supposed to change a view of the
horizon. Filipinos, in general, have such a poor sense of orientation. Have they
been able to equate the measuring of distances, the difference between east
and west, north and south, to the sanctity of their sovereign rights? What
would it take for Filipinos to fight for their country over a piece of the ocean?

No leader since the post-dictatorship era has befuddled the territorial issues
more than President Rodrigo Duterte ever has. He bends over to China's
disposition; when Chinese militia vessels were found swarming Whitsun Reef
near Thitu Island in March, there was hardly any sign of resistance from him.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration's 2016 South China Sea ruling in the
Philippines' favor, which was published the day before Duterte was sworn into
office, was, in the president's dismissive words, a piece of paper worth throwing
in the trash. The case was filed by the previous administration, which he treats
with scorn.

Still, no leader has so brazenly squandered hard-earned leverage to salvage

even an ounce of their country's pride to keep history in the right.

b. ANSWER: I will support President Duterte’s decision. Ms. Gina Lopez is a

woman with sincerity to serve and do her duties faithfully and dedicate herself
for the development and improvement of country’s overdue issue like climate
change and global warming where the leaders in the congress and senate
doesn’t initiate and raise awareness for the preservation of natural resources of
what Gina Lopez did. I do believe that if she is the Secretary of DENR she will
do her best to materialize her advocacy and dream not for the country
Philippines but for the neighboring nation and eventually the Philippines will
serve as a role model in preserving nature and natural resources, and through
this our country can surmount the devastating disasters and we Filipinos
resiliently do innovation for sustainability.