President Marcos to visit Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii in Nov., says DFA

PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. will visit the Indo-Pacific Command headquarters in Hawaii next week, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Tuesday.

He would go there after attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Summit in California on Nov. 15 to 17, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Charles Jose told a news briefing. “It is already in the President’s schedule.”

“It adds a layer to the cooperation that we are trying to establish with like-minded states in order to promote what we have been advocating all along — a rules-based order especially in the maritime areas,” he added.

The Philippines is hard-pressed to boost security ties with allies amid worsening tensions with China in the South China Sea.

The US Indo-Pacific Command is the oldest and largest of the 11 unified combatant commands of the United States. Its commander is responsible for more than 375,000 service members as well as an area that encompasses more than 100 million square miles (260 million square kilometers).

Senator Francis “Chiz” G. Escudero in a statement said congressional funding for the construction of facilities and structures in the South China Sea is a “done deal,” as the Senate starts floor debates on the proposed 2024 national budget this week.

“The West Philippine Sea is a hotspot,” he said. “Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you cannot miss what’s happening there.”

Mr. Escudero earlier proposed to build a pier and lodging for Filipino soldiers and fishermen at Second Thomas Shoal, which the Philippines calls Ayungin.

He said he would propose a P100-million budget for the Department of Public Works and Highways or Philippine Coast Guard to build the pier.

The Philippines plans to replace a dilapidated ship that it grounded at the shoal in 1999 with a permanent structure, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Western Command chief Alberto Carlos said in September.

The Philippines intentionally grounded the World War II-era ship there to assert its claim after China seized Mischief Reef in 1995.

China has created a large artificial island on the atoll including a 2,700-meter runway and associated airfield. Mischief Reef is just 250 kilometers west of the Philippine island of Palawan.

House Bill 8980, or the Marcos government’s proposed P5.768-trillion spending plan for next year was turned over to the Senate at the weekend.

Congressmen allocated P3 billion to develop islands in the South China Sea amid tensions in the disputed waterway.

SLOW BOATS
Senators have been pushing to boost the budgets of the Philippine Coast Guard and other security agencies amid rising tensions with China.

Senator Ana Theresia N. Hontiveros-Baraquel earlier said the Philippine Coast Guard should get as much as P600 million in intelligence funds.

Alberto B. Carlos, vice admiral of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Western Command, told congressmen Philippine resupply boats used to deliver food and other supplies to Filipino troops stationed in the South China Sea run at an average speed of seven knots or 12.96 kilometers per hour and need to be upgraded.

“The Unaizah Mae has a cruising speed of seven knots only,” he told the House of Representatives special committee on the West Philippine Sea hearing.

The AFP is considering to upgrade its resupply boats to travel at an ideal speed of 15 knots or 27 kph.

“We’d all like to go faster and bigger,” Mr. Carlos told BusinessWorld on the sidelines of the hearing.

Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tristan Tarriela said their vessels have to slow down to keep with the pace of resupply boats.

“Our 44-meter vessels can run as fast as 22 to 25 knots, however, since our primary mission is to provide security escort to the chartered boats, we have to adjust,” he told congressmen.

China Coast Guard vessel 5203 on Oct. 23 collided with Unaizah Mae 2, an AFP-contracted indigenous resupply boat 13.5 nautical miles (25 kilometers) east-northeast of BRP Sierra Madre at Second Thomas Shoal.

China claims more than 80% of the South China Sea, which is believed to contain massive oil and gas deposits and through which billions of dollars in trade passes each year.

It has ignored a 2016 ruling by a United Nations-backed arbitration court that voided its claim based on a 1940s map.

“They started claiming those islands particularly within our territory when the US bases basically left the country,” Defense Undersecretary Ignacio B. Madriaga told the committee.

The US bases in Subic, Olongapo and Clark, Pampanga were shuttered in 1992 after the Senate voted against the renewal of leases for the military bases.

Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. in February gave the US access to four more military bases under a 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) on top of the five existing sites.

Manila and Tokyo last week began talks on a reciprocal access agreement that will allow both countries to deploy forces on each other’s soil.

The Philippines has filed 467 diplomatic protests against China as of Oct. 31, with 124 filed under the Marcos administration, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA). — John Victor D. Ordoñez, Beatriz Marie D. Cruz and Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza