Module 6: National Security Concerns

Learning Outcomes:
After completion of the module, the students will be able to:
1. develop awareness on the concept national security in the promotion of
national development;
2. identify the values that must be developed and strengthened in
the furtherance of national security and peace building;
3. manifest concrete actions in forging national security and peace in the
country/world: and
4. identify the importance of belonging to the National Service Reserve Corps
after completing the NSTP course

Introduction:

Before proceeding with the discussion on National Security,

let us first differentiate between security and safety.

What is security?

Security means safety, as well as the measures taken to be safe or protected.

Often this word is used in compounds such as a security measure, security check
or security guard. The security department in a business is sometimes just
called security.

Security refers to all the measures that are taken to protect a place, or to ensure
that only people with permission enter it or leave it.

Security is freedom from, or resilience against, potential harm (or other

unwanted coercive change) caused by others. Beneficiaries (technically referents) of
security may be of persons and social groups, objects and institutions, ecosystems or
any other entity or phenomenon vulnerable to unwanted change.

Security mostly refers to protection from hostile forces, but it has a wide range of
other senses: for example, as the absence of harm (e.g. freedom from want); as the
presence of an essential good (e.g. food security); as resilience against potential
damage or harm (e.g. secure foundations); as secrecy (e.g. a secure telephone line); as
containment (e.g. a secure room or cell); and as a state of mind (e.g. emotional
security).

For further reading please refer to the given link

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security

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 Safety is the state of being "safe"), the condition of being protected from harm or
other non-desirable outcomes. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized
hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk.

Based from the give definitions and on what you have read further, how would you
differentiate security from safety?

One of the primary difference between the two terms is their definition. Security
refers to the protection of individuals, organizations, and properties against external
threats that are likely to cause harm. It is clear that security is generally focused on
ensuring that external factors do not cause trouble or unwelcome situation to the
organization, individuals, and the properties within the premises. On the other hand,
safety is the feeling of being protected from the factors that causes harm. It is also
important to highlight that an individual who controls the risk causing factors has the
feeling of being safe.

For further reading please refer to the given link

Difference Between Safety and Security |
Difference Between
http://www.differencebetween.net/language/words-language/difference-between-
safety-and-security/#ixzz6SjxmuIP5

Lesson Proper:

NATIONAL SECURITY

National Security is the state or condition wherein people’s welfare, well-being,

ways of life; government and its institutions; territorial integrity; and core values are
enhanced and protected.

National security or national defence is the security and defence of a nation state,
including its citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty
of government.

Originally conceived as protection against military attack, national security is now

widely understood to include also non-military dimensions, including the security
from terrorism, minimization of crime, economic security, energy security, environmental
security, food security, cyber-security etc. Similarly, national security risks include, in
addition to the actions of other nation states, action by violent non-state actors,
by narcotic cartels, and by multinational corporations, and also the effects of natural
disasters.

Governments rely on a range of measures, including political, economic,

and military power, as well as diplomacy, to safeguard the security of a nation-state.
They may also act to build the conditions of security regionally and internationally by

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reducing transnational causes of insecurity, such as climate change, economic
inequality, political exclusion, and nuclear proliferation.

For further reading please refer to the link

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_security

NATIONAL SECURITY IN THE PHILIPPINES

Commonwealth Act No. 1, also known as the National Defense Act, is the original
policy basis of the national security program of the Republic of the Philippines.
The 1987 Constitution mandates civilian control of the military and establishes the
President as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. The President also heads the
National Security Council, the policy-making and advisory body for matters connected
with national defense.

The council itself is composed of the President and at least nine others:

• Vice President
• AFP chief of staff
• National Security Council director
• Executive Secretary
• Secretary of Foreign Affairs
• Secretary of National Defense
• Secretary of Interior and Local Government
• Secretary of Justice
• Secretary of Labor and Employment

Responsibility for national security was vested in the Department of National

Defense. The principal functions of the department in 1991 were to defend the State
against internal and external threats and, through the Philippine National Police, to
maintain law and order. The Secretary of National Defense, by law a civilian, was
charged with advising the President on defense matters and developing defense policy.
In 2002, then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo won crucial backing from her cabinet
and the Congress for the deployment of US soldiers in the country as part of the war on
terrorism.

There are seven fundamental elements that lie at the core of, and therefore further
amplify our definition of national security. At the same time, they constitute the most
important challenges we face as a nation and people.

1. Socio-Political Stability - the government and the people must engage in nation-
building under the rule of law, Constitutional democracy and the full respect for human
rights.

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 2. Territorial Integrity - we must ensure the permanent inviolability of our national
territory and its effective control by the Government and the State. This includes the
preservation of our country’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and its protection from
illegal incursions and resource exploitation.

3. Economic Solidarity and Strength - we must vigorously pursue a free-market

economy through responsible entrepreneurship based on social conscience, respect for
the dignity of labor and concern for the public interest.
4. Ecological Balance - national survival rests upon the effective conservation of
our natural environment in the face of industrial and agricultural expansion and
population growth.

5. Cultural Cohesiveness - our lives as a people must be ruled by a common set

of values anDbeliefs grounded on high moral and ethical standards, drawn
from our heritage and embodying a Filipino standard, drawn from our heritage
and embodying a Filipino identity transcending religious, ethnic and linguistic
differences.

6. Moral-Spiritual Consensus - we must be propelled by a national vision

inspired, and manifested in our words and deeds, by patriotism, national pride
and the Advancement of national goals and objectives.

7. External Peace - we must pursue constructive and cordial relations with all
nations and peoples, even as our nation itself must chart an independent course, free
From external control, interference or threat of aggression.

THREATS TO NATIONAL SECURITY

Many security threats to the Philippines are non-military in nature. Pressing

security concerns like terrorism, poverty, and environmental degradation, needs to be
addressed in an informed and intelligent manner. In its internal aspect, national security
relates to the defense of the nation’s government against hostile local elements seeking
ts replacement with their own government. In this sense, national security refers to the
measures aimed at countering domestic or internal challenges to the existing political
and socio-economic order.

In its external aspects, national security is concerned with safeguarding the state
against outside or foreign forces, pressures, or influence designed to conquer it or
undermine its sovereignty, or placing under the domination or control of some foreign
state or states. In this sense, national security embraces the defense arrangements
directed at insuring the safety of the state against foreign intervention or domination.

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TYPES OF THREATS
There are six common types of threats that undermine security:

1. Rebellion or Insurrection - a refusal of obedience or order. It may, therefore, be

seen as encompassing a range of behaviors from civil disobedience and mass
nonviolent resistance, to violent and organized attempts to destroy an established
authority such as the government.
2. Terrorism - the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.
Common definitions of terrorism refer only to those violent acts which are intended to
create fear (terror), are perpetrated for an ideological goal, and deliberately target or
disregard the safety of noncombatants (civilians).
3. Murder - as defined in most countries, is the unlawful killing of another human
being with intent (or malice afterthought), and generally this state of mind distinguishes
murder from other forms of homicide. Kidnapping and Serious Illegal
4. Detention - the taking away or transportation of a person against the person’s
will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement
without legal authority. This may be done for ransom or in furtherance of another crime,
or in connection with a child custody dispute.
5. Hijacking/Highway Robbery - the crime of taking or attempting to take
something of value by force or threat of force and or by putting the victim in fear. In
common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to
permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear.
6. Crimes involving destruction  It may apply either as a measurable degree of
damage up to and including a state beyond use or repair, or it may indicate a state
wherein such damage is occurring and continuing. Ex. self-destructive behaviors,
suicide, demolition

INTERNAL THREATS AND EXTERNAL THREATS

INTERNAL THREATS

Our national security is infused with four important dimensions. Internal threats to
our national security make up the first dimension.

Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG)
The main internal threat arises from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)
which, in open rebellion against the government, has the avowed objective of
establishing an independent Islamic state in southern Philippines. Hand-in-hand with

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this security problem is the threat from the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), a small band of
highly mobile terrorists with suspected links to international networks.

Communist Party of the Philippines / New People’s Army / National Democratic

Front (CPP / NPA / NDF)
These three continue to pose a serious threat to national security, although
presently weakened in comparison with their peak strength in the 1985-87 period.
During the past two years, there has been an incipient increase of underground
activities in the urban areas and a slight upward trend in isolated terrorist acts in the
countryside.

Organized Crime
The challenge of illegal drugs, in particular, has grown into a major threat to the
national community. Of the 42,979 barangays nationwide, about 12 per cent are
affected in varying degrees. The anti-drug campaign is a major cornerstone of the
government’s law and order drive, involving the police, the Local Government Units and
the private sector, and focusing on a tripartite strategy of reducing drug supply and
demand as well domestic and international cooperation.

Grave Incidence of Poverty

This is also a serious threat to national security, especially to the extent that it
breeds and abets rebellion, crime and dissidence. Poverty incidence affects about one-
third of Filipino families nationwide. Consequently, the distribution of wealth has been
skewed in favor of a wealthy minority.

Economic Sabotage
Under this category are underground activities such as counterfeiting, money
laundering, large-scale smuggling, inter-oceanic poaching and commercial dumping.

Graft and Corruption

It has become another threat to our national security by virtue of the huge scale by
which it saps public resources, undermines the morale of the civil service and affects
the delivery of quality basic services. It has also become a disincentive to investment.

Severe Calamities
They cause serious food shortages, abet hoarding and profiteering and cause
hunger, disease and deprivation. Over the past ten years, the disaster toll stands at
more than 13,000 lives lost and P179 Billion worth of property destroyed. The National
Disaster Coordinating Center (NDCC) ensures the focused, coordinated and systematic
application of government and private manpower and resources to the tasks of disaster

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mitigation, and community rehabilitation and reconstruction.

Persistent Environment Degradation

This poses a long-term security threat. The attrition of forests and watersheds, air-
land water pollution and the proliferation of toxic substances are a cause of sickness,
death and the diminution of national productivity and well-being.

EXTERNAL THREATS
The growing uncertainties that lie in the regional and global milieu make up the
second dimension of our national security concerns even as threat of external
aggression against our country remains in the remote horizon.

Multilateral dispute over the Spratlys Islands

This is a source of intermittent tensions, owing to the build up of structures,
believed to be military-oriented, by some claimant countries in the area.

Smuggling of firearms and contraband, illegal migration and the occasional

movement of foreign terrorists through the porous borders of our south western
frontier
Philippine law enforcement agencies work closely with international police
organizations, bilaterally and multilaterally, to check these activities.

Lingering effects of the currency crisis affecting the countries within the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
These are causes of regional anxieties, which tend to aggravate political
instabilities and socio-economic dislocations involving the poorest people.

Serious economic disparity between rich and poor nations

This keeps the world in a state of instability and virtually on the brink of war in
many places.

Local or regional shortages of fresh water, arable land, food, fisheries, and
energy are already causing tensions.

Ethnic, religious and cultural conflict

This pervades many regions and nations, including our own. It is constantly
exacerbated by mass poverty, limited access to resources, denial of human rights, lack
of national integration and international issues.

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Proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD)
This is a threat to global security. Nuclear materials and technologies are more
accessible now than at any other time in history. The relative ease of production of both
chemical and biological weapons has made these attractive to terrorists.

Transnational organized crime.

This has proliferated in the era of globalization. The International Monetary Fund
estimates that global drug trafficking now accounts for two percent of the world
economy, excluding illicit capital flight and money-laundering activity. There are links
among drug trafficking, terrorism, smuggling of illegal aliens, massive financial and bank
fraud, arms smuggling and political corruption.

Natural disasters and environmental issues

They will continue to pervade the global security agenda. Mankind’s global
activities –particularly population growth, resource consumption, pollution, urbanization,
industrialization, desertification and deforestation – will increasingly impact on climate
and weather patterns, strain fragile ecosystems, and put more pressure on health and
social support systems.

Cybernetic crime
This is a growing global threat, as experienced with computer viruses such as
Melissa and Chernobyl, which have attacked isolated or networked information systems
through the internet or through software carriers and devices. Many vital decision-
making processes of our Government are now electronically-based and therefore
vulnerable to this threat.
For further reading click and read the following links
http://docshare.tips/nstp-national-

security_574d929cb6d87f411f8b5c79.html

file:///C:/Users/Acer/Documents/NSP-2017-2022%20(1).pdf

http://www.nsc.gov.ph/attachments/article/NSP/NSP-2011-2016.pdf

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