Last Oct. 24, 2023, Former Secretary Rafael Alunan III wrote an alarming observation and posted it on his Facebook account. The post discussed an incident wherein Chinese nationals were caught with military-grade weapons and markings. The implications and observations are quite disturbing.
Rafael M. Alunan III served as Secretary of the Interior and Local Government during the Ramos presidency and is the former Chairman of the Philippine Council for Foreign Relations.
Hereunder is the complete text as copied from his post on social media.
THE SIGNS ARE CLEAR by Rafael Alunan III
On October 16 the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) raided a house in Valle Verde 5 in Pasig. Arrested and detained were six Chinese nationals and their two Filipino security personnel. Taken from them were high-powered firearms and ammunition marked with “From People’s Republic of China”; as well as badges designating roles such as “blasting team,” “recon team,” “support team,” “assault team,” “machine gun team,” and “sniper team.” The discovery indicates China’s malevolent intentions by prepositioning clandestine forces for future action.
What it’s doing to us in the West Philippine Sea is directly related to its infiltration made easy by corrupt government officials, uniformed personnel and unpatriotic citizens. Valle Verde 5 is a gated subdivision, like Green Meadows, Corinthian Gardens, Greenhills, Blue Ridge and White Plains near, or next door, to Camp Aguinaldo and Camp Crame. The question racing through my mind is: how many more communities are harboring sleeper cells within striking distance from our centers of gravity around the country?
Our centers of gravity, for example, are Malacanan, the Senate, Congress and the Supreme Court; provincial capitols and city halls; headquarters of the Armed Forces, National Police, Coast Guard and EDCA camps around the country; strategic institutions like the Central Bank, business and financial centers; critical infrastructure such as energy and water supply networks, public transports and telecommunications. Included here are the embassies and consulates of allied countries; export processing zones, private industrial parks and malls.
There ought to be a persistent campaign to sanitize our communities of Trojan horses and sleeper cells nationwide. China’s supporting most probably proxy organizations like rebel groups, friendship societies, business conglomerates and united fronts to advance China’s core interest of “indisputable sovereignty” in our maritime domains and to take effective control of the country. How wide and deep is our problem? What we can’t afford is to still have them in our midst when our worst national security nightmares come true.
What we’re experiencing with China is connected to its 10-dash line. A 1946 map published by the Republic of China under Chiang Kai-shek showed a U-shaped eleven-dash line. It claimed the Paracels, Pratas and Spratly Islands after Japan’s surrender based on the Cairo and Potsdam Declarations. However, the terms did not specify ROC sovereignty over the archipelagos and surrounding waters. It was Mao Zedong’s People’s Republic of China that did when it took over in 1949. In 1952, the PRC removed two of the dashes amid warming ties with North Vietnam.
Today, the ROC government still uses the 11-dash line while the PRC changed its 9-dash line to 10 dashes as early as 1984 which it applies to this day. It claims “indisputable sovereignty” of the all the waters and islands within that arbitrary boundary that violates the sovereignty and sovereign rights of various claimants within their respective Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) granted by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). China considers all claimant countries “squatters” in their own legally recognized maritime domains.
China no longer masks its intent to replace the USA as the superpower in the Indo-Pacific. It has been gradually waging unrestricted warfare (short of kinetic) against the US and neighboring countries ever since the early ‘80’s in consonance with its master plan to be the next world power within fifty (50) years by using technology. It’s been exploiting America’s political, economic and social fissures. Since the Philippines is strategic real estate and a US ally, we’re bearing the brunt of its efforts to dominate and control us.
China’s established military bases on artificial islands within and just outside our EEZ. It brazenly dictates to us what not to do or where not to go. How many of them in the country belong to criminal syndicates; run unlicensed POGOs; smuggle anything from commodities to humans to firearms; hoard and launder; and spy? Some are “students”, “tourists”, Pogo “workers”, ships’ “crew”; “agri-aquaculturists”; “miners”; “journalists”, “technicians”, “academicians”, “film makers”; “hoteliers”, “restauranteurs”, “real property developers”, “logisticians”.
The world’s in the early stages of a world war between the Freedom Alliance (US, NATO, Israel, QUAD) and the Totalitarian Axis (Russia, Iran, China, No. Korea). My sense is that the Axis want to disperse US forces, deplete its resources, exploit its socio-political dysfunctions, and diminish its will to fight a 3-front war, possibly 4, with Africa included. Soon, perhaps in 2 to 3 years, the flames of war will reach our region and knock on our doors. It began with the Russia-Ukraine war in Europe, and is now in the Middle East, between Iran and Israel.
The US has been expending its resources to help Ukraine. It’s doing the same for Israel. At this time when the US Congress is leaderless, America’s capability to defend its allies is on the line. When the Axis powers calculate that America’s national power has been sufficiently weakened, China and No. Korea will make their move. That event is just around the bend. Sadly, we’re still not giving it the proper attention it deserves in terms of national and civil defense readiness, unprepared to deal with hybrid warfare that’s bound our way.
Expect our enemies to stage sabotage and terror raids; seize control of strategic infrastructure; attack EDCA bases, centers of power and defense manufacturing facilities; occupy high ground overlooking our strategic lines of communication; and rule the nation through surrogates in the government. Assume delayed responses from our allies who themselves will be pinned down at the start. For how long is a matter of conjecture. What we need to do is adopt Israel’s survival mindset to defend our nation until the last drop of the other side’s blood.
Our defense forces are being redesigned to fight a multi-domain hybrid war – modern, cyber, unconventional, WMD, AI. But how much longer will it take for them to become a lean, mean fighting machine? What I’m sure of is that there are no civil defense plans for the safety, security and survival of our communities in a wartime scenario. In the absence of any guidance from the government, civilian communities should organize, plan and prepare now while there’s still some time left. Depressing as it may be, it’s not a matter of if but when.
4.5
5