Food Delivery: Fresh from the West Philippine Sea – An Intense Trip Along Resupply Routes in the China Standoff.
Director Baby Ruth Villarama and the documentary team travel on a diverse assortment of sea craft to record the ongoing strife and its effects between the Philippine nation and the People's Republic of China over authority of the newly designated West Philippine Sea. This maritime region, viewed by the international community outside of China as part of the Philippines' EEZ, has seen increasing infiltration by Chinese vessels. These include fishing boats, many are maritime militia that have been accused of harassing, rammed, and attempted to board Filipino boats in the context of the broader sovereignty dispute.
Some footage are incredibly gripping, yet mostly the conflict unfolds as a war of words of maritime bluster. Crews aboard the different ships deliver impassioned declarations, peppered with diplomatic language, creating a form of "airwave diplomacy".
Sustaining the Outposts
The film's title references the critical efforts by the Filipino military to transport essentials to isolated garrisons in the West Philippine Sea where troops maintain a presence for long, solitary stretches. These outposts are often just small accumulations of sand in the shallows, about the size of a football pitch, approachable just with fast-moving motorized rafts.
The journeys are evidently terrifying for the young animals on board, which are loaded alongside canned goods and other necessities. The film shows the creatures seeking for a stable position as the craft race across the open water.
Impact on Livelihoods
Elsewhere in the documentary local fishermen around the inhabited Scarborough Shoal, who lament over dwindling catches caused by the sheer number of trawlers from China in their ancestral fishing areas.
A Compelling Subject, Imperfect Execution
Critically speaking, the documentary is slightly weakened by a somewhat scattered pacing and a musical score that can feel overly tacky, amplifying the dramatic moments. However, it remains a important look of a geopolitical issue that receives little discussion in Western media.
