Philippine Secretary of Defense Delfin Lorenzana on Thursday said it is highly unlikely his nation would allow the US military to use it as a springboard for freedom of navigation patrols in the disputed South China Sea to avoid antagonizing China.
Lorenzana said US ships and aircraft could use bases in Guam or Okinawa, Japan, or fly from aircraft carriers to patrol the disputed waters.
Under former Philippine president 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.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who took office in June, has taken steps to mend ties with China and became hostile toward the administration of US President Barack Obama after it raised concerns over his deadly crackdown on illegal drugs.
Asked if the Philippines would continue to host US ships and aircraft patrolling the disputed waters, Lorenzana said Duterte would 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.”
In Washington, US Department of State spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said she could not comment on Lorenzana’s remarks as she had not seen them, but added: “Our adherence to freedom of navigation is well known. You know, we will fly, we will sail anywhere within international waters and we will continue that.”
The commander of US forces in the Pacific, Admiral Harry Harris, said last month that despite Duterte’s rhetoric, military cooperation with Manila had 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.
US-Philippine annual combat exercises have been reduced, and would be redesigned to focus on disaster response and humanitarian missions. Among the maneuvers to be dropped starting next year are amphibious landing exercises and beach raids aimed at enhancing the nation’s territorial defense, 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 (習近平) in Beijing in October, China allowed Philippine fisherman at the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島).
China took control of the rich fishing area in 2012 after a tense standoff with Philippine government ships.
Philippine coast guard ships have also resumed patrols at the Scarborough Shoal.
Aside from the easing of tensions at the shoal, Chinese coast guard ships are no longer blocking Philippine resupply ships from Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙), farther south in the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島), Lorenzana said.
Lorenzana said he and his Chinese counterpart agreed in October to resume exchanges of defense 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.
Beijing could 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 neighbor,” Del Rosario said.
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