The Verdict

In the grand theater of Philippine politics, where the scripts are often written in disappearing ink, Representative Rodante Marcoleta’s recent quest for the "exact coordinates" of the West Philippine Sea (WPS) deserves its own standing ovation.

While the rest of the country looks at a map and sees a clear sovereign struggle, Marcoleta approached the issue like a man trying to find a specific grain of sand on a beach, while wearing a blindfold he bought himself.

To answer the burning question of which flavor of "confused" he was serving, let's look at the menu.

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The Marcoleta Menu: Pick Your Poison

Category	Diagnosis	Why it fits
a. Playing Dumb	High Probability	It takes a lot of intellectual effort to act like Google Maps doesn't exist.
e. Sea Lioning	The Winner	Relentless, "polite" questioning aimed at exhausting the opponent rather than finding the truth.
g. Gaslighting	Strong Contender	Making the public doubt their own eyes (and the 2016 Arbitral Ruling).
h. Disingenuous	The Baseline	The fundamental ingredient in every word spoken during that hearing.

The Art of the 'Sea Lion'

If you aren't familiar with Sea Lioning, it’s a harassment technique where a person masquerades as a "civil seeker of truth" while asking endless, repetitive questions. 

Marcoleta didn't just ask for coordinates; he treated the West Philippine Sea like a lost Grab pin.

"Is it here? Is it 2 inches to the left? If you can't give me the longitude of every single wave, does the ocean even exist?"

By demanding hyper-specific data for a concept that is already legally and geographically defined, he wasn't seeking clarity—he was seeking a distraction. 

It's the political equivalent of asking for the chemical composition of the ink on the Constitution to avoid talking about what the words actually say.

Faux Naïf or Just Faux?

There is something almost poetic about a seasoned lawmaker acting like a freshman in a geography 101 class. 

Being a faux naïf (pretending to be "childlike" or "simple") allows him to bypass the heavy lifting of patriotism. 

If he "doesn't know" where it is, he doesn't have to defend it.

The Verdict

To my friends, Marcoleta was a masterclass in Disingenuous Gaslighting. 

He wasn't "turning a blind eye"; he was trying to convince us that our eyes were broken. 

It takes a special kind of talent to look at a national treasure and ask for the receipt, the coordinates, and the blood type of the guy who named it—all while the house is practically on fire.

In the end, he wasn't lost at sea. He was just trying to make sure everyone else lost their way.