Philippines arms itself with new
pacts By George Amurao
With the United States playing coy about
its commitment to military defense ties, and the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
sharply divided on how to respond to China's
increasing assertiveness to territorial claims in
the South China Sea, the Philippines has in recent
weeks forged new pacts with non-regional allies
Australia and Japan to hedge its bets.
On
July 24, the Philippine Senate ratified the Status
of Visiting Forces (SOFA) agreement with
Australia, which had been pending in the
legislative body since it was signed five years
ago. In announcing the pact, Senator Edgardo
Angara said the Philippines needs "a protective
defensive treaty with our friends and allies".
He suggested the treaty will help to
provide a defense shield for the Philippines that
along with other agreements will run from
north to south, from
Japan and South Korea to Singapore, Malaysia,
Brunei, Indonesia, and Australia.
Another
senator, Loren Legarda, more explicitly linked the
pact to conflicts in the South China Sea. "We are
faced by grave dangers and threats not present 15
years ago and the Philippines is at the strategic
center of all these realities. A strategic center
that has no fulcrum will not be able to
realistically wage a sustainable, winning crusade
against these regional and global threats."
Signed in 2007 and later ratified by the
Australian parliament, the agreement had been on
the backburner due to nationalistic opposition in
the Philippine senate. The SOFA does not obligate
either party to come to the aid of the other in
case of a third-party attack, but rather covers
issues of jurisdiction over Australian troops sent
to train in the Philippines and vice versa as the
two countries conduct and potentially enhance
joint military training.
The two countries
already had an active defense cooperation, mainly
joint maritime exercises and counter-terrorism
training, based on a memorandum of understanding
signed in 1995. The Philippines has also received
Australian military aid, including advanced
training for senior officers in Australian
military schools along with the transfer to the
Philippines of 28 flat-bottomed airboats that can
be used for both military and disaster-relief
purposes.
"Australia has been assisting
the Philippines in strengthening its maritime
security capability with initiatives such as the
Coast Watch South project and the joint Maritime
Training Activity LUMBAS. These initiatives are
expected to be further expanded and strengthened
under the SOFA," a statement issued by the
president's palace said.
"Once in force,
the agreement will provide a more comprehensive
legal framework for the presence of one country's
forces in the other. It is reciprocal in nature,
with the same obligations being assumed by both
parties," the Australian Embassy said.
Earlier in the month, Manila concluded a
defense agreement with Japan. Philippine Defense
Secretary Voltaire Gazmin met his Japanese
counterpart Satoshi Morimoto in Tokyo on July 2 to
sign a Statement of Intent of the Greater Defense
Cooperation Agreement.
The five-year pact
provides for high-level, working level and
unit-to-unit military exchanges between the two
countries, policy talks on security and defense
concerns, education exchanges, and sharing of
regional and maritime information. The bilateral
defense agreement also covers cooperation in
international peacekeeping operations and includes
provisions for capacity building.
During a
visit to Japan last September, Philippine
President Benigno Aquino discussed with Japanese
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda the need to
strengthen ties between their respective coast
guards and navies.
"We share with the
Philippines the basic sense of values as well as
strategic interest," Noda said in a news
conference. "We've agreed on frequent dialogue
between top leaders and ministers, launch of
vice-ministerial strategic talks, and
strengthening of cooperation between maritime
safety authorities and defense authorities."
Included in the military pact is Tokyo's
approval for Manila to acquire 12 patrol boats for
use by the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG). According
to reports, 10 new 40-meter long vessels packed
with modern electronics gear will be turned over
under terms of Japan's Official Development Aid
while two additional bigger vessels are being eyed
for transfer to the Philippine government under a
grant.
These new vessels will not
ostensibly fall under Manila's stated plans to
build a "minimum credible defense" because they
will be transferred to the PCG. However, the move
signals a potential bigger role for the PCG in
deterring Chinese fishing boats from poaching in
the Philippines' exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
Militarized maritime Aquino
earlier emphasized a "white to white, grey to
grey" policy when it came to securing its maritime
borders, meaning coastguard ships should be the
ones to deal with civilian Chinese vessels and
fishing boats rather than naval vessels.
Japanese newspaper Nihon Keizai Shimbun
was quoted as saying that "the move to supply the
Philippines with patrol vessels [is meant] ... to
raise the Philippines' maritime safety
capabilities in the South China Sea, where it is
clashing with China over sovereignty rights".
The new pacts may have already emboldened
Philippine policymakers. This week, Manila's
Department of Energy announced it will auction
three contested areas in the South China Sea for
oil and gas exploration to multinational energy
companies. The blocks, which Manila claims are
within its EEZ, are off the Philippine province of
Palawan.
"The Philippines exercises
exclusive sovereign rights and authority to
explore and exploit resources within these areas
to the exclusion of other countries. There is no
doubt and dispute about such rights," said
Philippine Undersecretary of Energy Jose Layug.
Nonetheless, the new defense pacts were
hotly debated by Philippine lawmakers. Senator
Miriam Defensor-Santiago, former chair of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, opposed the
ratification of the pact with Australia and with
its passage raised questions about what she
described as "vague" provisions of the treaty and
how these "will spawn myriad irritants in
[Philippine]-Australia relations".
Harry
Roque, director of the Institute of International
Legal Studies of the University of the
Philippines' Law Center, has low expectations for
the deterrent impact of the new military agreement
with Australia. "Like the rest of ASEAN and even
the US, I think Australia has too much at stake
with China. They, too, cannot be involved in a
dispute that does not involve them and might
antagonize their biggest trading partner."
Though he opposes the presence of foreign
troops in the Philippines, Roque conceded that the
SOFA's provisions are more agreeable than the
Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) the Philippines
has in place with the US. The new treaty, he said,
"leaves soldiers accused of non-service related
offenses to Philippine authorities" unlike the US
agreement.
Despite these misgivings, the
treaty sailed through the senate on a 17-1 vote.
The easy passage was a reflection of the rising
pressure on the government to better address its
festering maritime disputes with China. A series
of incidents in the past months, including the
two-month stand-off at Scarborough Shoal have
intensified diplomatic and military frictions
between the two countries.
Tensions
threatened to spike two weeks ago when a Chinese
warship ran aground on Half Moon Shoal in the
disputed Spratly Islands. The missile frigate was
stranded just 60 nautical miles from the nearest
Philippine island, Palawan, and was within the
Philippines' EEZ where foreign naval ships are not
supposed to conduct patrols.
Last week,
Philippine officials based in Pag-asa island, one
of the largest in the Spratlys occupied by the
Philippines, reported that a flotilla of more than
20 Chinese fishing boats escorted by a couple of
Chinese missile frigates were seen poaching for
reefs and other marine products some five nautical
miles off the island. It was said that the Chinese
vessels were operating in the vicinity of Subi and
Mischief reefs, the latter of which hosts a
Chinese naval outpost.
Mischief Reef was
part of the territories claimed by the Philippines
until Chinese warships seized it in 1994. Recent
reports said that the waters surrounding the reef
are now undergoing dredging to accommodate larger
ships so that the reef may be used as a staging
ground for more Chinese fishing flotillas.
In both instances, the Philippine
government had stood by helplessly as it lacks
sufficient military power to challenge such
Chinese provocations. At the same time, its
traditional allies in the US and ASEAN have failed
to come sufficiently to Manila's defense against
China. That served as motivation for the new and
enhanced pacts with Australia and Japan. Aquino's
government is also considering similar new defense
agreements with Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei.
Though these pacts do not necessarily mean
these countries will aid the Philippines should a
shooting war break out with China, they will help
build up military capabilities through joint
exercises, training, education, and arms deals.
While China has apparently seized on the
Philippines' naval weaknesses, the situation is
evolving as more regional players enter the fray.
George Amurao, a former
journalist in Manila, until recently worked for
the Southeast Asian Press Alliance. He is now with
Mahidol University International College in
Bangkok, Thailand.
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