Food Delivery: Fresh from the West Philippine Sea – A Compelling Trip Through Supply Lines in the China Standoff.
Director Baby Ruth Villarama and her crew embark on a variety of sea craft to record the ongoing strife and its consequences between the Philippines and China over sovereignty of the recently named West Philippine Sea. This maritime region, viewed by most nations apart from China as within the Philippines' EEZ, has seen escalating incursions by boats from China. These include fishing boats, many are maritime militia that have engaged in harassing, rammed, and attempted to board Filipino boats as part of the ongoing standoff.
Certain scenes are undeniably tense, though often the conflict unfolds as a diplomatic dance of maritime bluster. Crews aboard each side's boats exchange heated speeches over short-wave, filled with technical legalese, engaging in a kind of long-distance negotiation.
Resupply at the Front Lines
The film's title points to the ongoing mission by the Armed Forces of the Philippines to resupply foodstuffs to tiny outposts in the West Philippine Sea where troops maintain a presence for extended, lonely tours. These specks of land are often just small accumulations of sand in shallow waters, no larger than a football pitch, approachable just with fast-moving motorized rafts.
These trips prove undoubtedly scary for the livestock being transported, which are crammed in with tinned food and other necessities. Viewers see the creatures seeking for better balance as the vessels zoom across the rolling sea.
Voices from the Shoal
Elsewhere in the documentary local fishermen around the inhabited Scarborough Shoal, who express concern over dwindling catches attributed to the ongoing activity of foreign fishing vessels in their ancestral fishing areas.
A Compelling Subject, Imperfect Execution
From a technical standpoint, the documentary suffers a bit from a at times meandering narrative approach and a soundtrack that can feel a bit heavy-handed, overplaying the tense scenes. Yet, it stands as a fascinating exploration of a geopolitical issue that receives little discussion in Western media.
