Gazmin: US patrols deter China’s action

From The Standard (Mar 10): Gazmin: US patrols deter China’s action

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said on Thursday   the government has welcomed initiatives of the United States government for deploying its naval and air fleet  to patrol the West Philippine Sea and  deter China’s military aggression while the Armed Forces of the Philippines doesn’t have enough capability yet to patrol and defend the country’s territorial domain.  

“We will welcome this opportunity. Somehow it deterred them from moving aggressively,” Gazmin told reporters in an ambush interview at  Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.  

The 7th Fleet operating under the US Pacific Command based in Honulu, Hawaii deployed its multi-role aircrafts carrier along with destroyers and submarines led by the US command and control ship to conduct patrols in the WPS and South China Sea while Beijing has been bullying other claimants such the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Brunei.

The  US deployment was a challenge to China’s militarization in the world’s largest economic sea lane to close freedom of navigation as part of its expansionist policy to change the geo-political and military map in the region which is largely still dominated by the US and its western allies, analysts said.  

Just recently, Beijing deployed sophisticated missiles in one of its claimed islands as security and defense experts say similar deployments can be done also  at   the artificial islands built by the Chinese military located within the Kalayaan Island Group, a municipality of Palawan in the WPS.  

While Manila is waiting the arbitral verdict at The Hague about her complaint against Beijing’s excessive and unilateral “9-dash line” claiming 90 percent of the disputed seas including a big portion of the WPS, the Philippine and US government inked last year the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement   to fast-track the deployment of US forces and military equipment to the Philippines.

EDCA, a military-to-military agreement under the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), was declared constitutional by the Supreme Court, which means the US can now deploy forces and even build military facility anywhere in the country under the approval of the government and supervision of the AFP.  

Asked about the status of EDCA, Gazmin said he will give an update soon as another meeting in Washington  has been set to discuss details of the agreement for immediate implementation.

It is also being highly viewed that EDCA will spur some improvements of the long-neglected AFP Modernization Program that continues to suffer setbacks at the DND level because of alleged corruption issues.  

Gazmin said the planned lease of TC-90 surveillance planes from Japan would  boost   the aerial and maritime patrol of the country.

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