The truce is signed, but the lesson must not be forgotten.
Finally, Kalayaan Mayor Beltzasar Alindogan and Puerto Princesa City Councilor Elgin Damasco met today to bury the hatchet. Following their high-profile dialogue, the Mayor has formally agreed to a transition. The Kalayaan LGU will finally return to its rightful seat of government on Pag-asa Island.
While this handshake signals the end of a messy chapter, we must not let the civility of the conclusion distract us from the toxicity of the conflict. This agreement shouldn’t have required a public showdown or a DILG intervention. The fact that it took a digital “mudslinging” match to force a return to legal jurisdiction remains a sobering reminder of how easily our focus shifts.
The previous row was a public unraveling that served as a gift-wrapped opportunity for Beijing. When officials air grievances on social media rather than in the dignified silence of a session hall, they signal to our aggressors that our house is divided. In the theater of geopolitics, optics are everything. For a nation locked in a David-and-Goliath struggle over the West Philippine Sea, we cannot afford to look like a disorganiz ed archipelago of bickering egos. Every Facebook post by a local official attacking another is a tactical victory for those who wish to see our sovereign claims crumble.
At the heart of this conflict was a “sore truth” regarding the P15 million “Resource Center” in Barangay Berong, Quezon, which is apparently hundreds of kilometers away from the islands the LGU was elected to serve. While officials defended this as a logistical necessity for mainland training, the message it sent to the world was disastrous: it looked as though our leaders were governing from a safe distance while our fishermen faced the brunt of the storm alone.
You cannot claim sovereignty over a territory you only visit when the weather is fair and the budget allows. Entrenching an administrative heart in the mountains of the mainland validates a form of geographic schizophrenia that weakens the argument of “effective occupation.”
Then there is the role of the “veteran broadcaster” turned Councilor. While I respect Councilor Damasco’s ability to stir a crowd, moving from the commentator’s booth to the City Council carries a specific weight. Using social media to launch broadsides against a neighboring LGU isn’t oversight; it’s performance art. This “noise” sometimes drowns out the very real, very dangerous “signal” coming from the West Philippine Sea. Diplomacy requires that certain arguments stay behind closed doors to avoid feeding the enemy’s propaganda machine.
The timing of this spat was particularly galling. With 16 Kalayaan officials recently slapped with a travel ban by China, this should have been a moment for Palawan to stand as one. Instead, while Beijing was drawing lines in the sand, our own leaders were typing insults on their screens lasting for days.
Do we honestly think China is intimidated by a local resolution when they see that our leaders can’t even agree on where their desks should be?
It is a relief that the grandstanding has paused and the transition to Pag-asa is underway. But let this be the last time our maritime frontier is treated like a social media teledrama. If the Kalayaan LGU wants to be taken seriously, they must remain permanent sentinels, not mainland commuters.
Forgive me, gentlemen, if this offends you, but sometimes it clearly takes a woman to decenter your egos and remind you of your place. Let us not play “warrior” on a screen, the territory you claim to lead is being swallowed by the silence of your absence.
Sovereignty is won on the shores of Pag-asa, not on social media. Put your pride in a drawer and get back to the front lines. Our fishermen are facing water cannons; the least you can do is show up to work. This must never happen again. Our adversaries are always watching. They harvest our divisions. They archive our public spats. They weaponize our disunity.
National soil demands discipline. It demands restraint. It demands that disagreements be handled with the gravity of what is at stake.
Ironic as it may be to cite a Chinese general here, but Sun Tzu’s words are brutally apt. “If his forces are united, separate them.” Let this be a reminder, that division is a weapon, whether we hand it to Beijing or create it ourselves.
