The Philippines wants its 70-year-old defense pact with the United States to recognize threats from China’s “hybrid warfare” in the South China Sea - that didn’t exist in the 1950s - and which now pose a danger to the Philippines, the US and the rest of its allies in the Indo-Pacific region, Philippine Defense Sec. Delfin Lorenzana said in a forum here this morning.
In a virtual conference sponsored by the Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington D.C., Mr. Lorenzana pointed to growing menace from China. He pointed to the de facto annexation of Scarborough Shoal, only about a hundred miles off the coast the country’s main island of Luzon.
When the Philippine-US Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) was signed Aug. 30, 1951, the US still had its air and naval bases at Clark, Pampanga and Subic, Zambales. Both were closed after the Philippine Senate rejected 12-11 on Sept. 16, 1991 a proposed treaty that would have extended a Marcos-era lease to keep the bases.
The MDT also made the Philippines one of only two US treaty allies in the region. For a time, Southeast Asian security revolved around the US security umbrella especially during the bipolar Cold War where the Soviet Union was perceived as the primary threat. The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) patterned after Western Europe’s NATO, relied heavily on the deterrence of American bases in the Philippines.
The MDT binds the Philippines and US to come to each other’s aid if either is attacked. Questions have revolved around Article V that defines the meaning of an attack and its purpose, specifying an attack on a “metropolitan area by both parties or on the island territories under its jurisdiction in the Pacific or on its armed forces, public vessels or aircraft in the Pacific.”
Mr. Lorenzana said, however, that the Philippines wants a review of the MDT to crystallize both nations’ positions on three areas:
-Clarification of US commitments amid rising tensions in the South China Sea, including the “possible expulsion of Filipino troops” in Kalayaan Island or from remote outposts such as those aboard the BRP Sierra Madre that was grounded on Ayungin Shoal in 1999.
-Inter-operability of US and Philippine assets to confront state-sanctioned intimidation and other hostile activities like those from China’s “hybrid warfare”. It has sent out hundreds of boats at a time and shooed away fishermen from neighboring economic zones. They’ve also enforced an air defense identification zone (ADIZ), warning off passing planes.
-Modernization of the Philippine military. The US has to move away from providing “Vietnam-era” armaments, Mr. Lorenzana urged, and support their efforts to acquire advanced weapons to build an adequate deterrent.
While the Philippines has benefitted from the MDT, said Mr. Lorenzana, it was never enough to let the Philippines stand on its own two feet.
He stressed it was time for the Philippines to “stop outsourcing our national defense to the US”. The defense chief pointed out that if the US really wants to make the Philippines a steady, reliable partner in confronting China, it will have to help make the Philippines strong enough to face the bully.
Mr. Lorenzana is scheduled to hold talks with counterpart Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon on Friday.
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