MILITARY AGREEMENT AMID CHINA ROW
[PHOTO - US Marine Lt. Gen. Duane Theissen gives high fives
to a group of boys during the turn over ceremony of a school building built by
US troops, as part of the PH-US military exercise, at a village in Puerto
Princesa, Palawan on Sunday. AFP PHOTO]
MANILA,
APRIL 24, 2012
(INQUIRER) A senior US commander in the
Pacific reaffirmed the United States' mutual defense treaty with the Philippines
Sunday amid increased tensions between the archipelago and China.
In the strongest comments yet from an American official on the South China
Sea dispute, Commander of the US Marines in the Pacific Lt. Gen. Duane Thiessen
said that the Philippines and US were bound by a military agreement.
"The United States and the Philippines have a mutual defense treaty which
guarantees that we get involved in each other's defense and that is self
explanatory," he told reporters in Puerto Princesa, the capital of Palawan.
Thiessen was responding to a question about whether the US would provide
assistance if Chinese armed forces attacked Philippine units over conflicting
claims to the Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal which have flared up in recent weeks.
The US commander did not elaborate on what kind of assistance would be
provided.
He also stressed that US-Philippine military exercises that began last week
were not directed at China and not linked to territorial tensions.
"There is no direct linkage. There is no tie between Scarborough Shoal and US
movement in the Pacific," he said.
China's warning ignored
Also yesterday, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) ignored China's
warning that the military exercises between the United States and the
Philippines may spark an armed confrontation in the disputed West Philippine Sea
(also known as South China) where Philippine and Chinese ships are locked in a
stand-off.
The Chinese government's strong objection to the annual joint Philippine-US
war games also known as Balikatan was reported in the Liberation Army Daily, the
official newspaper of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China.
AFP-Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) chief Lt. Gen. Juancho Sabban
described the Chinese commentary as "war mongering," saying that "it is very far
from the truth."
"There's no such issue that the Balikatan [exercises] has an effect on the
West Philippine Sea. It's purely field training exercise and civil-military
operations which is not at all related to the West Philippine Sea or China,"
Sabban said.
According to him, the military exercise will proceed as scheduled until its
conclusion on April 27.
"It will not affect [the West Philippine Sea] because it does not concern
China anyway," he added.
[PHOTO - photo: photo: US Navy / Mass Communication Specialist 1st
Class Robert Clowney ARRIVED IN PALAWAN FOR US-PHL BALIKATAN
TRAINING]
Philippine and US forces, Sabban said, were through with their gas and oil
platform defense and retake exercises that were conducted near the West Palawan
Sea but they were scheduled to do 25 amphibious exercises, among others, on the
last remaining days of their training.
Maj. Emanuel Garcia, Balikatan public affairs director of the Philippine
side, also said that aside from military training, Filipino and American troops
were also into veterinary, civic action, medical and dental missions and
humanitarian assistance and disaster response programs.
"We maintain that the Panatag Shoal is not connected. I repeat, not connected
in anyway with the ongoing Balikatan exercises because Balikatan has long been
planned and it's main purpose is to sharpen the interoperatiblity of Filipino
and American troops and exchange of skills and ideas focusing on non-combat
aspect, like humanitarian disaster response," Garcia stressed.
In its commentary, the Liberation Army Daily was reported as saying that
"anyone with clear eyes saw long ago that behind these drills is reflected a
mentality that will lead the South China Sea issue down a fork in the road
towards military confrontation and resolution through armed force."
"Through this kind of meddling and intervention, the United States will only
stir up the entire South China Sea situation towards increasing chaos, and this
will inevitably have a massive impact on regional peace and stability."
The standoff at the Panatag Shoal entered its second week and looks far from
over even as Manila and Beijing continue to find a peaceful end to the dispute.
Both countries maintain that Panatag Shoal is part of their territory.
Efforts to bring the matter to the International Court of Justice has proved
futile because of China has rejected it.
China based its claim on the shoal on historical facts, while the Philippines
cited the United National Convention on the Laws of the Sea (Unclos).
Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario earlier warned that other
nations would be affected by China's claim over the mineral-rich area if they
did not speak up now, like the Philippines is doing.
"Since the freedom of navigation and unimpeded commerce in the [South China
Sea] are of great import to many nations, all should consider what China is
endeavoring to do in the Panatag [Scarborough] Shoal," del Rosario said. "All,
not just the Philippines, will be ultimately negatively affected if we do not
take a stand," he said. He added that China's efforts to claim the entire South
China Sea as its territory was "clearly baseless."
More ships from China to bully us with Published :
Sunday, April 22, 2012 00:58 MANILA TIMES
A third Chinese patrol ship arrived Friday at Panatag/Bajo Masinloc.
This drew draw protests from our government, which accuses Beijing of escalating
a 10-day stand-off.
The present situation is so far the most high-profile flare-up in recent
years between our country and China.
Xinhua said that on Friday a 108-meter high-tech patrol ship also arrived to
protect China's interests.
Foreign Affairs spokesman Assistant Secretary Raul Hernandez said the arrival
of a third Chinese vessel ran contrary to efforts of our country and supposedly
China to seek a diplomatic solution to the dispute.
"Let us not aggravate this by any action that would escalate the situation.
And we think this is an action that aggravates and escalates the situation," he
told reporters.
"So in our next talk, we will ask China why they are trying to do this, and
ask why they have violated our agreement not to aggravate, not to escalate, the
situation in the Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal."
China says that it has sovereign rights to all of the South China Sea, even
waters close to the coast of other countries and hundreds of kilometers from the
China landmass.
We say we have sovereign rights over areas of the sea within our
200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone. Our position is supported by
international law.
And Bajo Masinloc has been used by Filipinos for centuries and appear in
Spanish colonial era maps of the Philippines.
China's military newspaper warns the US China's top military newspaper, the
Liberation Army Daily, in its Saturday issue warned the United States that our
US-Philippine Balikatan military exercises have fanned risks of armed
confrontation.
That the PLA daily has issued a warning against the United States means the
stand off between us and China in the West Philippine Sea is a subject that not
only China's political and diplomatic officials but also China's military
leaders are involved in.
When the story of the confrontation at Panatag first broke, a Chinese foreign
ministry official made a big point of saying that China's ships that went to
Panatag (which the Chinese call Huanyan Island) were not naval vessels. He said
so obviously to stress that those ships were civilian and not military. But from
pictures you could see that they were armed ships. They have to be if their
mission is to protect Chinese fishermen.
US policy of re-engagement a misnomer The United States is pursuing a policy
of economic and political "re-engagement" in the Asia-Pacific. We find the term
"re-engagement" inaccurate. For we have always been actively economically
engaged with the USA and the USA with us. Even with our Senate's decision in
1990 to terminate the presence of US military bases in our country, we have
never stopped being allies of the United States because of the Mutual Defense
Treaty and then the Visiting Forces Agreement.
Perhaps in the other countries of the Pacific the current military drills are
new but these countries have been economically, commercially and investmentally
connected to the USA since the end of World War II.
What is new for the USA is its participation in the East Asia Summit as a
full member. New also is the American-initiated Trans-Pacific Partnership, a
trade zone aimed to increase US competitiveness in the Asia-Pacific region so
that Americans can get involved in Asia's seemingly unstoppable economic growth.
But these are just additional economic engagements for the US in East Asia. The
USA has never been a stranger to Japanese and Korean commerce and industry since
1945.
Militarily, the USA has even had a longer engagement in Japan and Korea,
where it has naval and air bases and ground troops. America is even militarily
involved with Taiwan. So, we really can't understand why President Obama
announced last year that his country was "re-engaging" with the Asia-Pacific as
if it had been away.
This is not a trivial matter. For the notion that suddenly America has
decided to come back to the Asia-Pacific now that China is emerging as a
powerful and rich country is playing into China's anti-US propaganda. That
propaganda also affects us Filipinos. We and America are portrayed as if our
military exercises, which we have been doing even before Philippine-Chinese
diplomatic relations were established, are being organized to contain China.
This is unfair to us more than to the United States. For in the course of
portraying the United States as an interloper in our region, and in the West
Philippine Sea, we are being made to look like pawns of the USA. In fact, a
Chinese newspaper has called us a US pawn.
We are not. But we must continue to ask for US aid to help us defend
ourselves from Chinese bullying. Yes, we must insist that the US help make ours
a capable armed forces.
In fact the Council on Foreign Relations Memorandum about the risks of
clashes in the South China Sea (our West Philippine Sea) by Bonnie S. Glasser
recommends:
"Steps could be taken to further enhance the capability of the Philippines
military to defend its territorial and maritime claims and improve its
indigenous domain awareness, which might deter China from taking aggressive
action. Similarly, the United States could boost the maritime surveillance
capabilities of Vietnam, enabling its military to more effectively pursue an
anti-access and area-denial strategy. Such measures run the risk of emboldening
the Philippines and Vietnam to more assertively challenge China and could raise
those countries' expectations of US. assistance in a crisis."
So, the memorandum also recommends: "The United States could push for
submission of territorial disputes to the International Court of Justice or the
International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea for settlement, or encourage an
outside organization or mediator to be called upon to resolve the dispute.
However, the prospect for success in these cases is slim given China's likely
opposition to such options. Other options exist to resolve the sovereignty
dispute that would be difficult, but not impossible, to negotiate."
Chief News Editor: Sol
Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE
NEWS ONLINE
All rights reserved
PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS
ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE
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