The recent visit of Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana to Pagasa Island in the West Philippine Sea brings back a time when I was foreign affairs secretary in the 1990s. It was during that period when we were blindsided by the incident on Mischief Reef in the same contested waters, where Beijing built a structure that it labelled as a resting house for fishermen. I described it as “blindsided” because the United States knew all about it with their satellite capability, so secret that they chose not to tell us about it.

Romulo, R. R. (2020, June 19). Kalayaan: Sovereignty and joint business opportunity. The Philippine Star, p. B5.