The Seas of Our Insecurity: Ordinary versus State Discourses on Maritime and Human Security in the Philippines

The dominant discourse on maritime security in the Philippines is one that projects threats in the form of armed invasion of its territorial waters, of pirates threatening the safety of its sea-lanes, and more recently, of armed terrorists attacking its resorts and bombing its sailing vessels. On the other hand, the discourse of ordinary peoples living near the oceans, and whose livelihoods depend on them, is one that considers threats in the form of reduced economic opportunities brought upon them by natural and human-made forces beyond their control. It is these somewhat conflicting conceptualizations of maritime security that this chapter inquires into, and tries to reconcile as it imagines a maritime security discourse that is shaped according to the tenets of human security and that is authentic to the Philippine context.