THE Philippines will never be used as a “staging post” for any kind of military action, according to President Marcos Jr. who is on an official visit to the United States where he and President Joe Biden are expected to agree to new guidelines on military cooperation.
The President made the statement during an interview when he was asked asked about the Philippines’ possible role in the Indo-Pacific region amid geopolitical tensions in the region and the country’s recent involvement in military exercises with the US.
Marcos said amid all that is happening, the goal of the Philippines is to ensure the peace and the safety of the people.
“We work for peace. We’ll not encourage any provocative action by any country that involves … provocative action that will involve the Philippines by any other country. We will not allow that to happen. We will not use, we will not allow the Philippines to be used as a staging post for any kind of military action,” he said.
He also said the Philippines must stay within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and help keep the regional group “solid, strong, and united,” and support the organization in accomplishing its role in maintaining peace, and in easing and keeping the tension in the Indo-Pacific area low.
“ASEAN will still be the one to conduct and to lead the political fortunes of all the other countries around Asia,” he added.
ASEAN will convene in a summit next week in Indonesia.
The President in February said Philippine camps and other sites that the US has been given access to will not be used to attack other nations amid warnings from China that the Philippines may be drawn into a “whirlpool of a potential conflict in the Taiwan Strait.”
Marcos has said the four camps located in Cagayan, Isabela and Palawan will be accessed by US troops under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement to help the Philippines improve its disaster and humanitarian response and territorial defense capability, among others.
The President arrived in Washington at 4:55 p.m. Sunday (4:55 a.m. Monday in Manila).
His meeting with Biden was set for May 1 (2 a.m. Tuesday in Manila).
Marcos reiterated he will discuss Biden the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) to make it more responsive to developments in the region.
Under the MDT, Manila and Washington would come to each other’s defense in case of an attack.
“We call it a continuing evolution because we have to be able to respond to the situation as it happens. Hindi… And once the situation changed, we should also still be able to be responsive to that,” he said.
“China, of course, has become very dominant in the region. The United States has become less so. And so – but then the other player, i.e. like ASEAN member states, all the Asian states have also changed their position in the world,” he added.
MILITARY COOPERATION
US officials in Washington said Biden and Marcos, during the meeting, will agree to new guidelines aimed at strengthening military cooperation, underscoring a dramatic turnaround in US-Philippine relations over the past year.
The new guidelines focus on military coordination across land, sea, air, space and cyberspace, while the administration will also transfer three C-130 aircraft and look to send additional patrol vessels.
Biden will also reaffirm the MDT which calls for the US to act in the event of an armed attack on the Philippine military, said the officials in a briefing for reporters.
The meeting comes as part of a four-day US visit by Marcos, the first by a Philippine president in more than 10 years.
Marcos, who became president last year, has sought warm relations with both the US and China, who are vying for influence in the Asia-Pacific region.
Under Rodrigo Duterte, Marcos’ predecessor, relations with the US soured as he turned the Philippines sharply away from its former colonial ruler and built closer ties with China.
But with many Filipinos frustrated by China’s actions in the South China Sea, including harassment of Philippine ships and fishermen in parts of the sea that both countries claim, popular support has grown for a tougher stance towards Beijing.
CHINA’S INTENTIONS
Wariness about China’s intentions has only increased recently.
A comment last month by Beijing’s ambassador to Manila that the Philippines should not support Taiwan’s independence “if you care about the 150,000 overseas foreign workers” of Filipino origin who live there was viewed as a “veiled threat,” a US official said.
“Some of the steps that China have taken have concerned (Marcos), probably even surprised him,” said one senior Biden administration official. “He has strong desire to work closely with both countries but finds himself in a situation that the steps that China’s taking are deeply concerning.”
Marcos, before leaving for the US on Sunday, said, “We will reaffirm our commitment to fostering our long standing alliance as an instrument of peace and as catalyst of development in the Asia Pacific region.”
For its part, the US government sees the Philippines as key to any effort to counter an invasion of Taiwan by China, which claims the island as its own territory.
Experts say the United States considers the Philippines a potential location for rockets, missiles and artillery systems to counter a Chinese amphibious assault.
The exact contours of a US-Philippine alliance in a wartime scenario remain sketchy, including what level of access and cooperation would occur at Philippine bases where the countries’ militaries have agreed to work together.
China last month opposed the addition of four EDCA sites, three of which face Taiwan, saying the move was “stoking the fire” of regional tensions and that Washington should take no role in a conflict far away from its shores.
Marcos has assured Beijing that the additional EDCA sites do not constitute a threat to China.
FISHING MAP
Marcos ordered the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) put together a map of the fishing grounds within the Philippine territory that Filipinos go to, days after the near collision between a Chinese ship and a Philippine vessel.
Marcos said he has talked to a Chinese official about the latest incident in Ayungin Shoal and China has agreed “again to sit down” and talk about Filipinos’ fishing rights in the West Philippine Sea in the South China Sea.
He also said a Philippines-China “direct communication line” must be finally adopted, when asked about his thoughts on a recent maritime confrontation between the two countries.
The President and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed on the establishment of a “direct communication mechanism,” during Marcos’ state visit to Beijing in January.
The Philippines last week accused China’s Coast Guard of “aggressive tactics” following an April 23 incident during a Philippine coast guard patrol close to the Philippine-held Ayungin Shoal or Second Thomas Shoal, a flashpoint for previous altercations located 105 nautical miles (195 km) off its coast.
The United States on Sunday urged China to stop harassing Philippine vessels in the South China Sea, while Beijing said it was willing to handle maritime differences with countries of concern through friendly consultations, while warning Washington against interference.
“This is the kind of thing that… we’re hoping to avoid, that this time it was a little more dangerous because they were close,” Marcos said. “That can cause casualties on both sides.”
China claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, with a “nine-dash line” on maps that stretches more than 1,500 km (930 miles) off its mainland and cuts into the exclusive economic zones of Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia. An international arbitral ruling in 2016 dismissed that line as having no legal basis.
Marcos said the Philippines is still waiting for the final composition of the Chinese team that would be in the “direct high level communication line” with the Philippines. He said the Philippines has submitted the names of the officials who would be in direct communication with China.
INT’L REGULATIONS
The PCG yesterday dismissed the pronouncement of the Chinese foreign ministry that the PCG should be the one that should be blamed for the near-collision.
Commodore Jay Tarriela, PCG spokesman for the West Philippine Sea,
also welcomed the statement of support of the US and Australia to Philippines in light of the latest Chinese harassment incident which was made public on Thursday last week.
In a TV interview, Tarriela said personnel manning PCG vessels “always adhere to international regulations in preventing collision.”
On April 23, the PCG’s BRP Malapascua was conducting patrol near the Philippine-occupied Ayungin Shoal, about 174 nautical miles from Puerto Princesa City in Palawan, when a CCG vessel cut its path.
Reports said the CCG vessel came as close as 36 to 46 meters as it prevented the PCG vessel from going to Ayungin Shoal. Fortunately, the PCG vessel maneuvered to avoid a collision.
On Friday, the Chinese foreign ministry said the PCG was responsible for the near-collision, with its spokesman Mao Ning said calling it a “premeditated and provocative” action. Mao said the Philippines wanted to “deliberately find fault and take the opportunity to hype up the incident.”
Mao also claimed that the CCG ship was merely safeguarding China’s “territorial sovereignty and maritime order,” adding it took steps to avoid the collision.
Tarriela said, “We didn’t provoke them and our action is just a routine patrol.”
He emphasized Ayungin Shoal is within the Philippines’ 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone and it is “way too far” from China.
MEDIA, PATROLS
Tarriela said the PCG will continue conducting patrols in the West Philippine Sea despite the recent incident, noting the President has asked the PCG to maintain “constant patrol” in the area.
Tarriela said the reason the PCG has been embedding journalists during such patrols is to show the world “what is really happening in the West Philippine Sea.”
“If China thinks that this is a premeditated act so as we can hype it up in the international community, they should probably consider behaving in accordance with the international law…he said.
Tarriela said the PCG’s current approach is to ask media “to witness themselves and to attest as to what is really the behavior of China in the West Philippine Sea.”
On an earlier PCG pronouncement about planned PCG and US Coast Guard joint patrols in the WPS, Tarriela said, “This is something that we are still discussing but as to the concrete timeline, there is still no specific.”
RECALL PH ENVOY
Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez urged President Marcos to recall the country’s ambassador to Beijing “as a show of protest and displeasure” over the near-collision.
The country’s ambassador to Beijing is Jaime Flor Cruz, a former journalist who covered China for many years for American news organizations.
Rodriguez said, “Aside from the usual filing of a diplomatic note, we should order our principal representative in China to return home. He should not go back to Beijing until we receive a response from the Chinese government apologizing for their harassment and bullying tactics in the West Philippine Sea and committing to rectify their misconduct.”
Rodriguez noted that in 2022 alone, 193 protest notes were served on Beijing, including 65 by the Marcos administration but “all these protestations fell on deaf ears.”
“That is why they continue to harass and bully our Coast Guard patrols and our fishermen, from the northern part of our country in Pangasinan and Zambales to the south in Palawan,” he said.
He also lauded the US reaction to the near-collision incident. “We welcome the unequivocal, clear commitment by the US government. The reiteration of US obligations under the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty is very reassuring,” he said.
He said Beijing insulted the Filipinos’ intelligence by blaming the near-collision on the PCG personnel, saying “it’s unthinkable for a tiny craft like BRP Malapascua to provoke a huge ship like a Chinese Coast Guard patrol vessel.”
“It defies logic,” he said, adding that the Chinese Coast Guard routinely harass and bully PCG ships and small boats resupplying Filipino soldiers stationed in Ayungin Shoal off Palawan and does the same to fishermen in Scarborough Shoal near Zambales and Pangasinan.
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte said the Philippine government’s filing of diplomatic protests over and over against Chinese bullying is a “futile approach.”
He said the Philippines has to “double down” on plans for joint maritime patrols with the US and other allies in the hope of putting a stop to the relentless intrusions by China into Philippine territory. — With Victor Reyes, Wendell Vigilia and Reuters
