THE SPRATLYS AND SOUTH CHINA SEA ADVOCACY OF ROILO GOLEZ
The Roilo Golez advocacy on the Spratlys and the South China Sea started in 1971 when he was part of a secret mission that transported troops, weapons, equipment and supplies to our islands in the Spratlys then known as Freedomland, now known as Kalayaan Island Group, Palawan.
Roilo Golez was then a fresh graduate of Annapolis assigned as Gunnery Officer of the RPS Quezon (PS 70), the ship that led the mission. The RPS Quezon conducted several missions that year to the Spratlys with Golez on board.
Here are photos of Golez with other team members during the offloading operations in the Spratlys.
When he became a congressman in 1992, Golez adopted the Spratlys and South China Sea issue as one of his top advocacies.
He was among those who denounced China when the Chinese constructed in 1995 what was supposed to be a temporary shelter for fishermen in Mischief Reef within our Exclusive Economic Zone.
In 1999, Golez received reports through his US contacts that China was starting to build a permanent concrete structure in Mischief Reef. With US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, Golez arranged a PAF C-130 and they made several low altitude runs (500 feet) over Mischief Reef. There they saw many workers frenetically working on a concrete and steel structure, thus confirming the reported construction activity.
After that overflight, Golez and Rohrabacher held a press conference in the House of Representatives to report their findings: China constructing something big in Mischief Reef.
Golez issued many statements and delivered speeches. The government protested in vain.
It was again Roilo Golez, in a privilege speech a several months after, who announced that China completed a big concrete structure in Mischief Reef showing the world this picture furnished him by his special sources:
This expose hit the headlines, the government protested in vain and sadly, things quieted down again in the face of a Chinese fait accompli.
On December 7, 1999, Golez delivered a privilege speech to warn that China was aiming at a bigger, more strategic target: Scarborough Shoal. This was Golez's warning more than 10 years before China took control of Scarborough Shoal in 2012:
"Scarborough Shoal is part of China’s military projection at the South China Sea.
"In Scarborough Shoal, China has found a perfect forward fortress at the east to back up its slow but nonstop political and naval march towards the north, where there are Korea, Japan, Taiwan, among others. China has unleashed a blob at the South China Sea, floating eastward, growing slowly, menacingly, nearly unopposed, devouring every speck, every shoal and reef along the way."
When Roilo Golez became the National Security Adviser, Golez continued pressing for a resolution of the South China Sea issue in favor of the Philippines. He pressed for the inclusion of the Mischief Reef issue during President GMA's state visit to China, where Golez was part of the delegation.
But the Chinese government under President Jiang Zemin refused to include this in the bilateral agenda and said it was not yet the time. Jiang Zemin instead entertained the Philippine delegation with his rendition of "O Sole Mio."
Golez reportedly tried to decipher what message Jiang Zemin was trying to convey with that song. "O Sole Mio" whose literal translation is "My sunshine." He expressed the hope that the Chinese President was not referring to Manila's sunshine which is warmer and brighter than Beijing'ssunshine.
Golez returned to Congress in 2004 without seeing the South China Sea issue discussed in a bilateral with China while he was in the Arroyo cabinet.
In 2008, it was discovered that the government, through the PNOC, entered into a tripartite Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking or JMSU with the state oil companies of China and Vietnam for a possible joint development project.
Already in the opposition, Golez joined the voices denouncing the JMSU as a sell-out citing that around 75% of the JMSU area was within our EEZ and not a single square inch in the EEZ of China and Vietnam. So it was the Philippine natural resources being targeted for partitioning. Worse, the seismic survey, looking for oil and other minerals, was conducted by a Chinese survey ship and they kept the data.
Golez went to town denouncing the JMSU as a sell-out and briefed media and other organizations about his findings on how disadvantageous to the Philippines the JMSU was.
Golez wanted to summon the PNOC president to a congressional hearing but was barred by the infamous EO 464.
This was the newspaper article that reported that government executives snubbed the Golez resolution to investigate the JMSU.
Many times during his last three terms in Congress, the Spratlys and South China Sea issue came out and Golez was always there delivering a privilege speech, attending a congressional hearing or raising the issue in public and media forums such as this one:
Now a private citizen, Golez continues his advocacy and founded the DI KA PASISIIL MOVEMENT to join the protest against China's illegal presence in the West Philippine Sea. The DI KA PASISIIL MOVEMENT has been conducting regular lightning rallies in front of the Chinese Consulate.
A lightning rally of the youth arm of the DI KA PASISIIL MOVEMENT last April 4, 2014 in front of the Chinese Consulate. Golez is also one of the convenors of the West Philippine Sea Coalition.
In 1951 I was in elementary school, seven years old then. There was a map of the Philippines by Shell Oil Co. My fathers who was a teacher taught me how mto read a map. He told me that Spratlys and Sabah a part of the island of Borneo which was shown within dash lines were Philippines territories.
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