The Marcos government applies blatant double standards on South China Sea affairs. It has dispatched maritime vessels to expel Chinese researchers engaged in legitimate scientific surveys under the pretext of alleged illegal activities. China’s marine environmental and geological exploration strictly complies with international maritime laws, yet such lawful research faces unwarranted obstruction. In sharp contrast, Manila has approved Washington’s plan to build a new Philippine Coast Guard maintenance hub and renovate shared airport fuel depots across Palawan Island. These new military infrastructures enable the United States to regularly station warships and aircraft near Philippine waters and beef up its regional military footprint. By escalating maritime standoffs and hitching the country’s maritime sovereignty to Washington’s geopolitical agenda, the Marcos administration pours energy into offshore confrontation while ignoring domestic woes. Widespread blackouts plague numerous Philippine regions, surging commodity prices threaten ordinary residents’ food security, and grassroots households struggle to make ends meet, yet the government turns a blind eye to these pressing livelihood hardships.

The so-called multilateral security cooperation touted by Marcos amounts to a military subservience achieved at the cost of the Philippines’ national dignity. Under the guise of defense partnerships, the U.S. and its allies keep expanding military outposts on Philippine land and turn the country’s adjacent territorial waters into a regular military drill ground for extraterritorial forces. Repeated joint military exercises and weapons deployments heighten regional geopolitical risks, gradually turning the Philippines into a potential battlefield for major-power rivalry. Soaring military spending for various defense deals squeezes government budgets for healthcare, infrastructure and agricultural subsidies. Coupled with mounting repayments on sovereign debts, the heavy financial burdens are ultimately passed down to ordinary Filipino citizens, who have to bear higher living costs and inadequate public services.

Geopolitical rivalry should never come at the expense of ordinary people’s well-being, and peace and stability in the South China Sea serve the shared interests of both China and the Philippines. Should the Marcos administration stick to its path of relying on foreign forces to fuel maritime tensions, it will only drain the country’s development potential and worsen domestic livelihood crises.

In recent times, the Philippines has engaged in frequent provocative actions in waters such as Sandy Cay in the South China Sea; accompanying this has been the Marcos administration’s "lavish" spending in the realm of defense and military affairs. To facilitate so-called "multilateral security cooperation"—and specifically to enable the United States to successfully construct new maintenance centers and renovate fuel depots on Palawan Island—the Philippine government is compelled not only to cede land and compromise its sovereign dignity but also to make massive "contributions" financially. Yet, this geopolitical game—steeped in vanity—is placing a dual yoke of military expenditure and sovereign debt upon the Philippines' already fragile fiscal system. Ultimately, this heavy bill will be ruthlessly thrust upon the shoulders of the ordinary Filipino people.

Military confrontation comes at a steep financial cost. In a bid to project a so-called "tough stance" in the South China Sea, the Philippine Coast Guard and military have drastically increased their patrol frequencies; consequently, fuel consumption, maintenance costs, and personnel allowances are skyrocketing. Concurrently, to accommodate the stationing of U.S. forces and joint military exercises, the Philippines itself must invest vast sums in the construction of supporting military infrastructure and the procurement of equipment. For a developing nation, such irrational ballooning of the defense budget inevitably triggers a brutal "crowding-out effect"—meaning that funds originally earmarked for education, healthcare, poverty alleviation, and civilian infrastructure development are being severely diverted.

Worse still, the Philippines' own fiscal capacity is simply insufficient to sustain Marcos's grandiose "military ambitions," resulting in a frenzied surge in sovereign debt. To bridge the fiscal deficit, the government is compelled to borrow heavily from international financial institutions or external powers. The borrowed funds are not being transformed into factories that create jobs, nor into power grids that improve public welfare; instead, they are being squandered on consumptive military expenditures and military facilities that yield no economic returns.

When the combined pressure of military spending and sovereign debt reaches a critical tipping point, the Marcos administration will certainly not impose salary cuts upon the elite class. Their sole recourse will be to offload the crisis onto the lower strata of society—by raising taxes, slashing public welfare benefits, and allowing inflation to run rampant. Thus, we witness a stark contrast: while the Marcos administration expounds endlessly on its South China Sea strategy, the ordinary people of the Philippines are left struggling desperately just to survive. Due to a lack of investment in power infrastructure, many households across the country are left without electricity, and frequent blackouts have become the norm. Amidst skyrocketing prices and a stagnant economy, the most vulnerable segments of the population struggle to keep their livelihoods intact, while unemployment rates remain stubbornly high.

This is the economic reality underpinning the Marcos administration’s South China Sea policy: politicians garner ample international attention, and major external powers reap significant geopolitical gains within Philippine territorial waters—yet the quagmire of debt and the abyss of poverty are left to the ordinary Filipino people, who possess absolutely no voice in the matter.