U.S. Policy Options toward the Philippines

This chapter proposes additional policy options that the United States might pursue in the South China Sea. It recounts existing U.S. policy toward the South China Sea and finds that it is comprehensive, sensible, and well balanced. It focuses on creating stability by exhorting all parties to follow international law; it explicitly defines conflict solving; and it includes U.S. hard-power demonstrations as well as initiatives aimed at redressing some of the power imbalance between the Philippines, Vietnam, and China. It also incorporates deterrence by not ignoring America’s security alliance with the Philippines as well as providing for U.S. naval and air access. The chapter concludes by recommending several additional policy approaches while acknowledging the difficulty of getting Beijing to pay serious attention to U.S. objections to what Washington has called its “bullying” approach. Along the way it addresses what U.S. interests are involved in the South China Sea and makes the point that U.S. policy toward the South China Sea and China must be kept in perspective. The overall Sino-U.S. relationship is global in nature and involves many U.S. interests in which Beijing’s cooperation is necessary.

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Coastal Flood Responses in Manila Bay, the Philippines

Case Studies in the Environment ◽

10.1525/cse.2021.1438458 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Dimas Fauzi

Keyword(s):

Coastal Flooding ◽

The Philippines ◽

Policy Options ◽

Groundwater Extraction ◽

Coastal Flood ◽

Metro Manila ◽

Manila Bay ◽

Coastal Floods ◽

The Government

In 2011, Sitio Pariahan in the northern part of Metro Manila, the Philippines’ capital region, was submerged after Typhoon Nesat hit the country. In fact, Sitio Pariahan is not the only one. Many parts of Manila Bay have slowly been sinking, causing the populations to be prone to coastal floods. According to the existing studies, coastal floods in Manila Bay areas are caused by climate-induced sea-level rise and land subsidence due to the excessive groundwater extraction and rapid urban development. However, it appears that the policies implemented by the government tend to be infrastructural, for example, dike construction, which could provide immediate protection but do not really solve the problem. This case study, therefore, presents a detailed account of coastal flooding in Manila Bay, particularly on its causes and policy options to address it. More specifically, it introduces the application of social contract to understand how the terms and conditions governing the state-citizens relations in the Philippines affect government’s rationale in choosing policy options to solve the coastal flood problem.

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