Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to end a key US security pact would undermine the ability of US forces to help the country deal with major disasters and deter aggression in the disputed South China Sea, former Philippine secretary of foreign affairs Albert del Rosario said on Friday.
Del Rosario cited the deployment of more than 13,000 US military personnel, dozens of aircraft and US Navy ships under the Visiting Forces Agreement when Typhoon Haiyan ravaged the central Philippines in 2013.
“Other countries wanted to immediately respond, but were constrained by the lack of legal arrangements for their troops to enter the Philippines,” Del Rosario told a Manila forum, where the repercussions of Duterte’s decision to terminate the agreement were discussed.
Duterte’s administration last month notified the US government that it intends to abrogate the 1998 agreement, which allows the entry of large numbers of US forces for joint training with Philippine troops, including disaster-response maneuvers, and lays down the legal terms for their temporary stay.
The termination is to take effect after 180 days unless both sides agree to keep the agreement.
“What is unfolding before us is a national tragedy, which should be resisted,” Del Rosario said. “As a democratic and republican country, we do not believe that one man alone can make this damaging choice for our people.”
The move by Duterte, known for his disdain of US security policies while praising China and Russia, would be a major setback for the two countries’ decades-long treaty alliance.
Haiyan was one of the most ferocious typhoons on record and left more than 7,300 people dead or missing, flattened entire villages, swept ships inland and displaced more than 5 million people.
Del Rosario, who was secretary of foreign affairs at the time, said the US government delivered about 2,300 tonnes of relief supplies and evacuated more than 21,000 people to safety.
Duterte defended his decision on Wednesday, saying that the Philippines can survive and address a long-running communist insurgency and threats by Muslim extremists in the largely Roman Catholic nation’s south without US military assistance.
“Do we need America to survive as a nation?” Duterte asked. “Do we need ... the might and power of the military of the United States to fight our rebellion here and the terrorists down south and control drugs?”
“The military and police said: ‘Sir, we can do it,’” Duterte said.
Del Rosario said that the agreement appears to have deterred China from undertaking reclamation and construction in Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島), a disputed fishing area off the northwestern Philippines that China effectively seized after a tense standoff in 2012.
China has claimed virtually the entire South China Sea, where the US military presence has been seen by some rival claimants as a crucial counterweight in a busy waterway where they fear an armed conflict could erupt.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in