Philippines pushes West Philippine Sea education into school curricula

Lawmakers in the Philippines filed House Bill No. 10587, the West Philippine Sea Education Act, to embed teaching on the disputed waters into elementary, high‑school and college programs. The bill tasks the Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education, together with agencies such as the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority, the National Security Council and the Philippine Coast Guard, to develop the curriculum based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the 2016 South China Sea arbitral award that affirmed Philippine sovereign rights.

The move follows recent Chinese Coast Guard actions, including a water‑cannon attack on a Philippine fisheries vessel and a large‑scale exercise near Scarborough Shoal, which a Pew survey found 76 % of Filipinos view as the greatest security threat. The Philippines cites support from the United States, Japan and European partners in defending the rules‑based order in the Indo‑Pacific.