by USec Arturo "Art" Valdez (Ret) | Sep 19, 2026 | Articles
Completing an Unfinished Maritime Reform: Toward a Department of Maritime and Ocean Affairs for an Archipelagic Nation The Philippines is an archipelagic State, but its governmental institutions have never fully reflected the maritime character of the nation. For...
by USec Arturo "Art" Valdez (Ret) | Jul 11, 2026 | Articles
Co-Author: VADM Joseph M Coyme PCG (Ret), Ph.D. One of the central arguments advanced during the symposium is that Batanes is a “natural geographic extension” of Taiwan and therefore should belong to China. This argument is fundamentally flawed. Anyone...
by USec Arturo "Art" Valdez (Ret) | Jul 11, 2026 | Articles
Co-Author: VADM Joseph M Coyme PCG (Ret), Ph.D. Anyone can advance imaginative theories that a distant island is merely the “natural geographic extension” of another territory. Yet such arguments collapse under both logic and international law. The flaw...
