A voyage into the world’s most contested waterway
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 16 October 2024
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Just 140 miles off the coast of the Philippines’ largest island is a sparkling blue lagoon that is rich with fish and minerals. This ring of reefs and rocks is called Scarborough Shoal. For centuries, it has been a place of open passageway and connection, drawing fishermen from all over the region.
It’s a place that captain Jory Aguian, student activist Mathew Silverio and the rest of a small Philippine flotilla of wooden boats are determined to reach. They hope to follow in the steps of generations before them and to show solidarity with the Philippine fishermen who have managed to remain at Scarborough. However, getting there is complicated.
Scarborough Shoal is in the South China Sea – a waterway that is claimed in part by at least six countries and has become one of the most geopolitically tense places in the world. With its geographic proximity, the Philippines views Scarborough as theirs, but China also claims the shoal. In recent years, as the Philippines has tried to stress its claim to this waterway, China has doubled down on its efforts to maintain its security interests in the South China Sea. This has led to escalating tensions and confrontations, with Chinese ships using water cannons on Philippine boats and flying fighter jets overhead.
And so the question for those on board this small Philippine flotilla is: Can they do this, can they achieve their goal of making it to Scarborough? How far are they willing to go, to risk their lives?
Today on “Post Reports,” we embed with the Post’s Southeast Asia bureau chief, Rebecca Tan, on a voyage into these contested waterways. Yasmin Coles and Martin San Diego contributed to this story.
Today’s show was produced by Elana Gordon. It was edited by Peter Bresnan with help from Reena Flores. It was mixed by Sean Carter. Special thanks to Alan Sipress.
Subscribe to The Washington Post here.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey everyone, Martine here. |
| 0:05.0 | So as you may know, it is less than three weeks until the presidential election. |
| 0:10.0 | A very stressful time for many of us, and there is a lot happening right now on the campaign |
| 0:15.2 | trail. |
| 0:16.2 | So for the latest you should check out today's episode of the campaign moment. |
| 0:21.1 | My co-host Aaron Blake breaks down why Vice President Kamla Harris is |
| 0:25.2 | struggling to gain support from groups that normally vote overwhelmingly Democrat, |
| 0:29.6 | in particular from black men and he and our colleague Cleve Wootson talked through how the Harris campaign is trying to fix the problem. |
| 0:38.0 | For anyone who is currently obsessed with the ups and downs and the polling and the presidential race, this is going to be a very eye-opening conversation. |
| 0:47.0 | But to hear it, you're going to need to check out the feed for the campaign moment, which you can find very easily by searching for the campaign moment in your |
| 0:56.3 | podcast app. Today on Post Reports, however, we want to share a special story with you from a completely different part of the world. |
| 1:04.9 | We're passing the mic to reporter Rebecca Tan, the Southeast Asia Bureau Chief for the post. |
| 1:10.4 | Rebecca got unusually close access to a remarkable story that takes place out at sea, in one of the most |
| 1:16.7 | geopolitically tense places in the world. |
| 1:19.8 | We're going to follow a small group of fishermen, most of whom speak to Golug, who are trying to challenge a powerful |
| 1:26.0 | government. It's a story about who gets to own the open ocean, and about the laints people and |
| 1:32.2 | governments are willing to go to defend what they believe is theirs. |
| 1:37.0 | Also, just one quick note, about halfway through the episode, you will hear a curse word. |
| 1:42.0 | All right, here's Rebecca. |
| 1:44.0 | Okay, it's currently |
| 1:50.0 | 205 a.m. we are headed to take a bus to a port. So at the beginning of our |
| 1:59.3 | journey to get onto this boat. A few months ago I jumped into a car with two of my colleagues |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Washington Post, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Washington Post and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.