Source:
https://scmp.com/news/asia/southeast-asia/article/2053026/manila-will-not-help-us-patrols-south-china-sea-defence
Asia/ Southeast Asia

Manila will not help US on patrols in South China Sea, defence secretary Lorenzana says

Delfin Lorenzana says US ships and aircraft could use bases in Guam, Okinawa or fly from aircraft carriers to patrol the disputed waters

Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana. Photo: AP

The Philippine defence secretary said on Thursday it is highly unlikely his country will allow the US. military to use it as a springboard for freedom of navigation patrols in the disputed South China Sea to avoid antagonising China.

Delfin Lorenzana said US ships and aircraft could use bases in Guam, Okinawa or fly from aircraft carriers to patrol the disputed waters.

Under President Rodrigo Duterte’s predecessor, Benigno Aquino III, some US aircraft and ships stopped in the Philippines on the way to patrolling the disputed waters to challenge China’s territorial claims.

Duterte, who took office in June, has taken steps to mend ties with China and became hostile toward the Obama administration after it raised concerns over Duterte’s deadly crackdown on illegal drugs.

Asked if the Philippines will continue to host US ships and aircraft patrolling the disputed waters, Lorenzana said Duterte will not likely allow that to happen “to avoid any provocative actions that can escalate tensions in the South China Sea. It’s unlikely”.

“We’ll avoid that for the meantime,” Lorenzana said. “Anyway, the US can fly over there coming from other bases.”

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Photo: Reuters
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Photo: Reuters

US officials did not comment immediately. The commander of US forces in the Pacific, Admiral Harry Harris, said last month that despite Duterte’s rhetoric, military cooperation with Manila has not changed.

Duterte has publicly threatened to scale back the Philippines’ military engagements with the US, including scuttling a plan to carry out joint patrols with the US Navy in the disputed waters, which he said China opposes.

The US can fly over [the South China Sea] coming from other bases Philippine defence secretary Delfin Lorenzana

US-Philippine annual combat exercises have been reduced and will be redesigned to focus on disaster response and humanitarian missions. Among the manoeuvres to be dropped starting next year are amphibious landing exercises and beach raids aimed at enhancing the country’s territorial defence, military officials said.

Duterte’s actions have become a hindrance to US efforts to reassert its presence in Asia, although the US military has vowed to continue patrolling one of the world’s busiest commercial waterways.

After Duterte met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in October, China allowed Filipinos to fish at disputed Scarborough Shoal. China took control of the rich fishing area in 2012 after a tense stand-off with Philippine government ships.

Philippine coast guard ships have also resumed patrols at the shoal.

Aside from the easing of tensions at Scarborough, Chinese coast guard ships are no longer blocking Philippine resupply ships from Second Thomas Shoal, farther south in the Spratlys, Lorenzana said.

Lorenzana said he and his Chinese counterpart agreed in October, during Duterte’s trip to China, to resume exchanges of defence observers and students under a 2004 agreement. The exchanges were suspended in 2012 when the Philippines brought its territorial disputes with China to international arbitration under Aquino’s presidency, angering Beijing, he said.

China has also inquired if it can supply armaments to the Philippines, he said.

China can further expand its influence in the region if US president-elect Donald Trump pursues an isolationist foreign policy, former Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said.

“If the US relinquishes [its] leadership posture in terms of the region, that vacuum will be quickly filled by our northern neighbour,” del Rosario said.