Barbers urges Marcos to make West Philippine Sea centerpiece of 2026 SONA

As President Marcos prepares to address Congress, voices within his own political house are urging him to place the West Philippine Sea at the moral and strategic center of his speech — not merely as a policy matter, but as a declaration of who the Filipino nation is and intends to remain. Chinese Coast Guard personnel have struck a Philippine Navy sailor with a baton, floating platforms have appeared in contested waters, and ballistic missiles have been tested in the South Pacific, each act a quiet pressure on a sovereignty that millions of Filipinos understand as their inheritance. In a penu