How do you defend an archipelago ?
The failure to seriously addressed this question through doctrinal integration and strategy development may be fatal to any effort of protecting an archipelagic country like the Philippines. The Philippines is a nation separated by bodies of water. In an event of invasion or foreign aggression, how will it be possible to maintain each island free from the occupation of a foreign power? We have to bear in mind that each island is strategic in its own right, but physically isolated from the rest, a plus factor for the invading forces and a minus for the defenders. The aggressor need not worry about its flanks since there are only but bodies of water surrounding it. A concentrated superior and brute force can be employed one island at a time till the defenders are cornered like rats. After which, the beleaguered and defeated island will be used as a base or staging area to attack the next, and so on. The lessons of Bataan and Corregidor should somehow exemplify this point. Even Gen. Mc