China’s overreach President Barrack Obama is coming to the Philippines in October, and it is not for a social visit. The US obviously needs to strengthen its relationship with its oldest and most reliable ally in the Pacific if Obama’s “pivot to Asia” is to become a workable reality. Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin has announced that the US and the Philippines are currently holding talks to hammer out an agreement under which the former is allowed access to its former bases in the country, specifically Subic Bay and Clark Air Base. Until the US Naval Forces left in November 1992, Subic Bay was the largest American military installation outside Continental United States. Then Chinese vessels—military or commercial— wouldn’t dare enter the country’s maritime borders. The basing arrangement is an integral part of that American vision. Mr. Obama will attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Indonesia and the US-ASEAN Summit and the East Asia Summit in Brunei. He will then drop by Malaysia, where he is scheduled to confer with Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak. The US President is saving the Philippines for last, which is perfectly understandable, since the country is going to play an indispensable role in the US-Asia Pacific alliance. In none of the countries mentioned could the US feel more comfortable than in the Philippines. The Americans—and the Spaniards before them—regard Subic Bay as an ideal site for a naval base. It is a bay with deep harbor, protected by mountains on two sides and therefore secure from the strongest of typhoons. Moreover, the entrance is narrow and easily defensible. The US Navy feels confident—as it once did—that ships and planes are safe from saboteurs, with most Filipinos being incorrigibly pro-American. Indeed, it is as if it were stationed in Hawaii or Guam. But what is there for the Philippines? Well, we are under threat from the People’s Republic of China, a country that has yet to learn the responsible exercise of military power. It has laid claim to shoals and isles that clearly belong to us under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas. Once upon a time China would merely protest the arrest by the Philippine Coast Guard of Chinese fishermen, arguing that its citizens had been in international waters. Perhaps realizing we could not do anything about it anyway, this Communist behemoth laid claim to the entire South China Sea under the so-called nine-dash line. China has overreached itself. It has encroached into areas that fall within the Philippines’ 200-mile exclusive economic zone. It is now building permanent structures on Scarborough Shoal or Bajo de Masinloc, which is just a little more than a hundred miles from Subic Bay. It is doing the same thing in the Spratlys, which is part of Palawan province. By doing so, China has driven the Philippines back into the waiting arms of the US. There is already a working military alliance between the two countries. Under the Visiting Forces Agreement, American and Filipino soldiers regularly hold military exercises. The US formally asked access to its former bases, following announcement of the military rebalance plan. The Philippines, frightened out of its wits by China’s bullying tactics, has indicated it is amenable to the idea. The country’s Leftist elements object to American military presence on the ground that it is a derogation of the country’s sovereignty. Once upon a time, the country fell for that line. In September1991, the Philippine Senate rejected ratification of the renegotiated RP-US Bases Agreement. By that act, the senators demonstrated their displeasure with the Americans for propping up the Marcos dictatorship for so long. It was an ill-considered decision.
Posted on: Sun, 15 Sep 2013 07:22:08 +0000
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