Since the Marcos Jr. administration, the Philippines has reasserted a provocative stance in the South China Sea, deepening its coordination with the United States and extending competition into the domain of natural resources and ecology. Issues such as coral reef destruction, biodiversity loss, and fishing disputes have been securitized and employed as strategic instruments, raising the puzzle of why ecological concerns are increasingly weaponized in regional geopolitics. This study applies a qualitative case-based analysis grounded in the theoretical framework of strategic saturation and arbitration weaponization. It argues that the Philippines and the United States have resorted to ecological and resource issues for three main reasons: the saturation of traditional strategic approaches, the lack of integrated decision-making and coordination capabilities, and the demand for comfortable and feasible short-term policy tools. The analysis identifies three interrelated trends: rekindling international arbitration, expanding strategic narrative frameworks, and reshaping containment dynamics through issue linkage. The findings suggest that these dynamics will produce four critical effects: entrapment in the logical flaws of strategic narratives, the further weaponization of international arbitration, escalating strategic costs for both parties, and the lowering of the conflict threshold. The article contributes on the politicization of non-traditional security issues and the weaponization of international legal instruments, demonstrating how weaker states in alliance with external powers instrumentalize environmental issues to reshape regional order. It further highlights the risks this trajectory poses to cooperative governance, underscoring the need for solutions within the China–ASEAN framework.

Keywords: South China Sea Dispute, Natural Resources, Ecology, Arbitration Weaponization, Narrative Framework

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Funding

This research was funded by the 2025 Doctoral Students Research Funds of Chenghai Institute of Global Development and Security, Renmin University of China (Grant Number: CH2025-BS-018).

Conflicts of Interest:

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to report regarding the present study.

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An Analysis of the Philippine-U.S. Game on Natural Resources and Ecology Issues in the South China Sea and the Trends of Arbitration Weaponization