By John Victor D. Ordoñez, Reporter
THE PHILIPPINES needs to go beyond joint patrols and secure long-term investments from its allies that would beef up the country’s maritime security amid China’s growing assertiveness in the South China Sea, according to security analysts.
“Joint patrols alone are necessary but not sufficient,” Raymond M. Powell, a fellow at Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, said on Sunday in an X message.
“Japan, the US and other partners will need to make robust investments in building up Philippine maritime security capabilities to deter Chinese adventurism.”
Last week Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique A. Manalo and newly appointed Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya had a telephone meeting to ensure a rules-based international order in the region amid sea tensions with China, according to Japan’s embassy in the Philippines.
The envoys discussed regional and international issues during the call and vowed to work together in easing tensions in the East and South China Sea, where both Japan, and the Philippines have disputes with China.
Tokyo and Manila should ensure their cooperation on these maritime issues, which should hinge on peaceful solutions to these disputes, Rommel C. Banlaoi, president of the Philippine Society for International Security Studies, said in a Viber message.
“Otherwise, it will only trap the Philippines in the crossfire of major power rivalry between China and Japan,” he said.
Both countries signed in July a reciprocal access agreement to ease the entry of equipment and troops for combat training from Japan.
Japan is committing to provide the Philippines with more patrol vessels and surveillance radar systems that it can deploy in the South China Sea, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa told a news briefing during her visit in Manila in July.
Senate President Francis “Chiz” G. Escudero earlier told foreign journalists they plan to ratify the military pact before the year ends.
The Philippines has a visiting forces agreement with the US and Australia. Tokyo, which hosts the biggest concentration of US forces abroad, has a similar deal with Australia and Britain, and is negotiating another with France.
In July, the US Defense department said Washington is committing about $500 million (P29.2 billion) to the Philippines as part of a national security package to help its allies “defend themselves against threats to their sovereignty and to the lives and freedom of their citizens.”
In April, Republican Senator Bill Hagerty and Democrat Senator Tim Kaine pushed a bill that increased US military aid for the Philippines to $500 million from $40 million over five fiscal years through 2029.
US Marines, sailors and their Filipino counterparts held joint military exercises earlier this month to boost interoperability with allied forces in the Indo-Pacific region.
Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Eduardo Gerardo C. Teodoro has said Manila is considering all security options that would deter China’s aggression in the waterway, after the US said it does not plan on pulling out its missile system it left in Manila.
Washington has no plans to withdraw its Typhon missile system from the Philippines and is studying its use in a regional conflict, Reuters earlier reported.
The Philippines is open to acquiring the Typhon midrange missile system, Agusan del Norte Rep. Jose “Joboy” S. Aquino II earlier told the House plenary as he sponsored the Defense department’s budget next year.
Beijing insists it has sovereignty over most of the South China Sea based on its old maps and has deployed hundreds of coast guard vessels deep into Southeast Asia to assert its claims, disrupting offshore energy and fishing activities of its neighbors including Malaysia and Vietnam.
China has ignored a 2016 international arbitral ruling that voided its claims for being illegal.
The country has fully militarized at least three of several islands it built in the South China Sea, which it mostly claims in full despite the 2016 ruling that backed the Philippines, arming them with anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles, the US has said.
Portions of the waterway, where $3 trillion worth of trade passes yearly, are believed to be rich in oil and natural gas deposits, as well as fish stocks.
“The Philippines will need to secure an enduring, long-term commitment from its security partners to hold off China’s aggression in the West Philippine Sea,” Mr. Powell said.