Let’s apply the cold lens of logic to the Philippine government’s official positions. The result is not a policy, but a comedy of contradictions so vast it becomes a national tragedy.
Current situation
Situation A: The Philippine state claims the territory of Sabah as its own. This is a non-negotiable historical truth, enshrined in maps and memory.
Situation B: The Philippine state asserts its sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) against perceived Chinese encroachment. Cooperation here is framed as a potential violation of national integrity.
Situation C: The government of Sabah (operating as part of Malaysia) is actively deepening economic and strategic cooperation with China.
The inescapable trilemma (where logic enters and chaos begins)
From these situations, only three conclusions are possible. Choose your adventure:
Conclusion 1 is the Lie: If we claim Sabah but raise zero objections as it partners with our proclaimed existential threat, then the Sabah claim is a decorative fiction. The Philippine government has been feeding the public a patriotic fairy tale.
Conclusion 2 is the Farce: If it’s acceptable for “our” Sabah to work with China without the WPS being a deal-breaker, if it is logically acceptable for “Philippine territory” (Sabah) to embrace China without any complaint from Manila, then China’s actions in the WPS cannot logically be an existential threat to Philippine sovereignty. The panic, the rhetoric, the crisis—it’s revealed as selective, theatrical, and politically convenient.
Conclusion 3 is the cognitive black hole. Both are true simultaneously. We are a country that (a) claims land it doesn’t act to defend, and (b) fights a costly, all-consuming battle over a sea using a “threat” logic we ourselves ignore for our own “land.” This is beyond hypocrisy; it is institutional insanity.
This leads to the simple, devastating question the state cannot answer:
If China’s political and economic embrace of Sabah—a land territory we claim as our very soil—is not treated as an existential threat by Manila, then on what coherent basis is its presence in the maritime WPS deemed one? The only variable that changes is location, not the actor or the strategic intent. The government’s silence in one instance screams that the “threat” is not in China’s actions, but in our own selective outrage.
But why stop at logic? Let’s admire the full, glorious absurdity of the performance.
The Three-Ring Circus of Manila
Ring 1 is Schrödinger’s Sabah. Sabah is in a quantum state: 100% Filipino when making speeches, 0% Filipino when requiring actual sovereign responsibility. It is the ultimate magician’s trick—now you see the territory, now you don’t!
Ring 2 is the geographically-triggered panic button. The Philippine national alarm system has a fascinating glitch. China in the WPS: RED ALERT! Sirens blare. Sovereignty is dying! The nation is under siege! China in “Our” Sabah: ...Silence...
Ring 3 is the self-cancelling sovereign claim. This is the masterpiece. The state’s silent acceptance reveals its own decree: “Sabah is part of the Philippines. However, Sabah may form binding partnerships with China, which we have identified as an existential threat. So, yes, we let an existential threat be in “our” territory.“
The Philippines has achieved the impossible: a national security doctrine that actively disproves itself. It is screaming that the house is on fire in the kitchen, while quietly letting who it deems as the suspect being served tea in the living room—a living room the Philippines also claim is part of its house.
A State at war with its own logic
This isn’t a diplomatic inconsistency. It is a fundamental breakdown of strategic narrative. A state cannot credibly claim an action is an existential threat in one place while treating it as a non-issue in another place it calls its own.
The only consistent message being sent is this: Our territorial integrity is not a principle. It is a prop. Used when the script demands drama in the West Philippine Sea, and hastily stuffed backstage when the plot gets inconvenient in Sabah.
The audience is left with a simple, devastating choice: either our leaders are cynically lying about Sabah, or they are theatrically exaggerating the threat in the WPS. Or, in the grand Filipino tradition of absurd politics, both.
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