UNITED States Vice President Kamala Harris yesterday visited a fishing village in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan, one of the beneficiaries of a $28 million Fish Right Initiative project of the United States Agency for International Development.
Harris’ visit to the fishing village of Tagburos, home to around 1,500 families, was meant to check on the progress of the USAID project. Aside from Tagburos, 11 other fishing communities in the country are also beneficiaries of the project.
The visit is part of a three-day trip to an Asian ally that is central to America’s bid to counter China’s increasingly assertive stance in the region.
Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea, which is believed to contain massive oil and gas deposits and through which billions of dollars in trade passes each year.
Harris pledged last Monday the US would defend the Philippines if it came under attack in the waterway, reaffirming Washington’s “unwavering” commitment to its former colony.
Her comments followed a meeting with President Marcos Jr., who welcomed Harris for the first time at Malacanang.
A 2016 ruling by an arbitration tribunal in the Hague said Beijing’s South China Sea claims had no legal basis, delivering a victory for Manila. But the Philippines has been unable to enforce the ruling and has since filed hundreds of protests over what it calls encroachment and harassment by China’s coastguard and its vast fishing fleet.
Palawan is only about 320 km (200 miles) from the Spratly islands, where China has dredged the sea floor to build harbors and airstrips. Parts of the archipelago are also claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
The visit comes with US-Sino tensions high, particularly over Taiwan, the democratically governed island China has long vowed to bring under its control.
“We are not against the US’s interaction with regional countries,” said Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning when asked to comment about Harris’ visit to Palawan.
“But it should be good for regional peace and stability and not damaging to other countries’ interests.”
Washington and the Philippines have moved ahead with the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), dating from the Obama administration, though it languished under Duterte.
EDCA allows the United States to maintain a military presence, but not a permanent one, through the rotation of ships and aircraft for humanitarian and maritime security operations at mutually agreed Philippine bases.
WARM WELCOME
Harris was welcomed by the locals, including children who performed a folk dance for the VP and her entourage. She later joined the children in putting the finishing touches on a mural welcoming her to the village.
Harris asked USAID and community officials about the project and how it was able to help the impoverished community.
“What are we learning here in the fishing community,” Harris was heard telling one of the USAID officials.
Harris also met with a group of local women who were making dried fish at the shoreline. She even held a fish being dried.
Harris also greeted a group of fishermen carrying their catch for the day.
The Fish Right Initiative is a five-year program that started in 2018 and aims to counter illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, including in the West Philippine Sea.
A fact sheet provided by the US Embassy in Manila said the project is now focusing on communities and fishing areas in and near the West Philippine Sea such as Tagburos due to the challenges posed by the encroachment by large scale, domestic fishing fleets that affect small-scale fishermen as well as foreign maritime forces.
“Unsustainable fishing practices perpetuate a cycle of poverty and natural resource depletion. USAID Fish Right’s interventions are designed to advance sustainable and resilient fisheries, anchored on improving the resilience of small-scale fishers,” the embassy’s fact sheet said.
As one of the project’s beneficiaries, Tagburos receives a IUU assessment and risk reduction planning, ensuring resilience of fish stocks, systematic marine protected area network designing, and improving fish catch through harvest controls.
The project also aims to improve fishers’ financial literacy, establish market linkages between fishers and government agencies, academic institutions and private sector, and develop micro enterprises to lessen their dependence on marine resources.
Ahead of Harris’ visit to Palawan, the White House unveiled 17 new initiatives between Washington and Manila.
The initiatives include a $7.5 million Maritime Law Enforcement Assistance to boost Philippine maritime law enforcement capabilities against illegal fishing, improve maritime domain awareness and provide search and rescue support, including in the South China Sea.
Another is a new USAID program to support communities sustain traditional livelihoods and sustainable fishing practices, strengthen food security, and advance the conservation of marine ecosystems in the South China Sea that are vulnerable to development and climate change.
STRONG MESSAGE
Retired Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio yesterday said the visit of Harris will send a strong message to China that the Philippines will have the capability to defend itself.
He said Harris’ visit is a reiteration of Washington’s commitment to defend Manila under the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty which binds both countries to come to each other’s aid in case of foreign invasion or aggression.
“The US wants to repeat it to reassure everybody, not only the Philippines but other countries, and particularly, this is a message to China that the Americans will stand by their Mutual Defense Treaty commitment,” Carpio told ABS CBN News Channel.
While in Palawan, Harris toured a Philippine Coast Guard offshore patrol vessel that has been used for patrol and surveillance missions in the WPS.
Carpio said under the EDCA, the US can preposition equipment such as the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System or HIMARS which can fire guided missiles over 300 kilometers.
“It is a message to China that the Philippines has the capability to defend Philippine-occupied islands in the Spratly because right now we do not have that capability,” he said.
At the House, the Makabayan bloc led by Rep. France Castro yesterday filed House Resolution No. 582 seeking a congressional inquiry into the country’s 123 agreement or the nuclear energy cooperation deal with the United States that was announced by Harris.
The militant lawmakers said the measure was filed “in light of the high threats posed to the health and safety of Filipinos and our environment by experimental nuclear technology.”
“The US Vice President said that the United States and the Philippines are initiating talks on a civil nuclear cooperation deal. Once in force, the so-called 123 Agreement will provide the legal basis for US exports of nuclear equipment and material to the Philippines, the White House explained in a fact sheet. But the problem here is Filipinos might end up getting duped, becoming guinea pigs for a technology that is still being tested by the US,” Castro said.
Castro said modular or microreactor nuclear power plants are still at an experimental stage and are only legally being made in US bases. — With Wendell Vigilia and Reuters
