A social listening report from Capstone-Intel Corporation revealed that approximately 78 percent of Filipino social media users (combined with likes and angry reactions) are negatively taking the issue of the swarming of over 135 Chinese militia ships in Juan Felipe Reef, adding that Filipinos are mad at how Chinese forces occupy the Philippine territory.
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Background
The Philippine Coast Guard said on Sunday, December 3, 2023, that more than 135 Chinese maritime militia vessels were being watched near Julian Felipe (Whitsun) Reef in the West Philippine Sea.
The PCG reported that it first witnessed 111 Chinese ships swarming the disputed waterway’s Julian Felipe Reef, which is a member of the Kalayaan Island Group, on November 13.
Based on military monitoring, the number of Chinese militia vessels increased to 125. The Coast Guard reported that by Saturday, over 135 boats had been “dispersed and scattered” in the area.
The PCG referred to the increasing number of Chinese boats on the reef as an “alarming development.”
The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) stated on Monday that the presence of more than 100 suspected Chinese maritime militia (CMM) ships at the Julian Felipe Reef may be a prelude to reclamation efforts.
This is just one of the possibilities, according to PCG spokesperson for West Philippine Sea Commodore Jay Tarriela, given that a significantly higher number of vessels were seen in the sand bank than in previous months.
Methodology
Capstone-Intel examined the online presence of Juan Felipe Reef in the country as a topic of discussion over the weekend, from December 3, 2023, to December 5, 2023, by utilizing all publicly accessible posts from social and non-social media platforms in order to gather the sentiments of the public about the recent swarming of Chinese militia ships in the country.
Facebook Performance
Capstone-Intel found that Juan Felipe Reef garnered a 6,771.1 engagement score for its 149 total post count, which yielded over 24,301 total reaction counts. When broken down, “Facebook like” accounts for 39.7 percent of the total reactions, with 9,641. This was closely followed by “Facebook angry” with 9,504 reactions (39.1 percent), “Facebook sad” with 2,772 (11.4 percent), “Facebook haha” with 1,645 (6.8 percent), “Facebook wow” with 428 (1.8 percent), and “Facebook love” with 311 reactions (1.3 percent).
Looking at the data, the majority of “Facebook like” and “Facebook angry” reactions can be attributed to several Filipino social media users getting mad at how Chinese militia ships swarmed the Philippine territory. However, it is also worth noting that, although the majority of the engagements are negative. Although the issue is a national concern, the intensity of the engagement scores reaching the number of users is not enough to spark a comprehensive discourse as it yielded a small number of reach.
Online mentions
Capstone-Intel likewise revealed that the Juan Felipe Reef received 90 percent negative mentions, and the remaining 10 percent were positive mentions. This means that the article mentions the brand was mostly angled negatively – mostly against the Chinese occupation of the area. It is also worth noting that Juan Felipe Reef received 13,905,855 combined social media reach, while its non-social media reach yielded over 1,134,074 non-social media reach.
Top posts
In terms of top posts, the top post for Juan Felipe Reef was a news report from GMA News featuring more than a hundred Chinese militia vessels spotted at Julian Felipe Reef (Whitsun Reef), some 169 nautical miles off Palawan, on December 2, 2023. This story received a 2,727.7 engagement score.
This was followed by another news report from ABS-CBN News, which reported the “dispersed and scattered” view of Chinese militia ships along Julian Felipe Reef. This post yielded a total of 620.1 engagement score.
The third most engaging post for Julian Felipe Reef was another news report from a news agency, namely Rappler, which explores, in video format, the intensity of Chinese militia presence along the Julian Felipe Reef, yielding a total engagement score of 447.1.
Looking at the top posts, the main drivers of stories for the issue are news websites highlighting the necessity for concerned government agencies, through their official social media pages, to air their concern regarding the swarming of Chinese militia ships in the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines.
