Posted to the pro-CPP/NPA/NDF online propaganda outlet, Bulatlat (May 20, 2023): At Ground Level | US, Phl update defense guidelines
The US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty, nearly 75 years old now, is being dusted off in the light of “current and emerging threats” to the two countries – read: China’s increasing belligerence about Taiwan and its own maritime claims over almost the entire South China Sea.
Last May 3, newly-crafted Bilateral Defense Guidelines (BDG) were released by the US State Department, which assert the treaty’s “enduring relevance” by “modernizing alliance cooperation in the service of the… shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific region.”
Specifically, the BDG reaffirm that an armed attack in the Pacific, “including anywhere in the South China Sea,” on either of their public vessels, aircraft or armed forces – which include their Coast Guards – “would invoke mutual defense commitments under Articles IV and V of the (MDT).”
Such attack threats include land, sea, air, space and cyberspace – through “asymmetric, hybrid and irregular warfare and grey-zone tactics.” Big words that need to be explained by experts, for which the guidelines would “chart a way forward to build interoperability in both conventional and non-conventional domains.”
To strengthen US-Philippine “combined deterrence in an evolving security environment,” the guidelines set the following objectives:
• Foster common understanding of roles, missions and capabilities within the alliance framework to face regional and global security challenges (which are mainly US concerns);
• Unify efforts across all areas of bilateral security and defense cooperation to sustain focus on principal regional security concerns; and
• Guide priority areas of defense cooperation to address both conventional and non-conventional security challenges of shared concern.
To advance these objectives, the guidelines say they need to:
• Modernize defense capabilities – Closely coordinate on the AFP modernization program by completing a Security Sector Assistance Roadmap; identify priority “defense platforms and force packages” that would bolster combined deterrence and capacity to resist coercion [presumably from China]; prioritize procurement of interoperable defense platforms (weaponry) “sourced from US programs” and the Philippines’ national defense procurement and funding initiatives and expand investments in non-weaponry defense capacity-building, via education and training exchanges, exercises and other operational activities.
• Deepen interoperability – Orient bilateral exercises and activities around improving/combining ability to counter armed attacks on either country as well as threats in space and cyberspace, while expanding the scope, scale and complexity of exercises; expand cooperation on maritime security and maritime domain awareness, by continued conduct of maritime activities, including but not limited to joint patrols (in the SCS/WPS); under the EDCA, strengthen interoperability, through infrastructure improvements, enhanced joint use of facilities, advancing additional maritime security, maritime domain awareness and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief capabilities; and rotational US access to EDCA sites.
• Enhance bilateral planning and information sharing – Conduct coordinated analysis, tabletop exercises and training/exercises to reinvigorate bilateral planning and coordination efforts; assess bilateral requirements and advance common objectives and approaches to shared challenges; develop adaptable decision-making processes and communication procedures to support flexible, timely, whole-of-government bilateral coordination and action to respond to conventional and non-conventional warfare.
Broaden information-sharing on early indications of threats to the peace and security of both countries, to ensure preparations to address principal challenges confronting the alliance; strive toward real-time information-sharing in collaboration with other departments and agencies to support deeper interoperability and operational coordination; enhance information security via consultations on policies, practices and procedures to protect classified defense and military information.
• Combat transnational and non-conventional threats – Improve cyber defense and cyber security cooperation to secure critical infrastructure and protect against attacks emanating from state and non-state actors; pursue capacity-building activities to respond to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear-related attacks and to counter the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Prior to the adoption of the guidelines, the US-Philippines 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue held in Washington (involving the two countries’ defense and foreign affairs chiefs), issued a joint statement on April 11, 2023.
The two sides committed to do the following:
• Strengthen bilateral planning and interoperability through conducting “high-impact and high-value” joint military exercises. These characterized the largest-ever Balikatan live-fire war games held in April involving more than 17,000 American and Filipino troops, including a few Australian soldiers.
• Accelerate the implementation of EDCA projects and increase investments in US facilities inside Philippine military bases to further support combined training exercises, interoperability and civilian-led Philippine disaster preparedness and response capabilities.
• By the end of fiscal-year 2023, the US is expected to have allocated $100 million toward infrastructure investments at the five existing EDCA sites and to support the “swift operationalization” of the four additional sites approved by Ferdinand Marcos Jr. last month.
• Complement combined military training exercises with USAID community-based activities in EDCA-related projects, including increasing access to safe water supply, education and health care.
• Expand cooperation, exchange best practices and increase “strategic convergence” in counter-terrorism and addressing grey-zone challenges, including protecting strategic infrastructure against attacks emanating from state and non-state actors; fostering “civilian-led, non-military counter-terrorism initiatives, where feasible and effective, using an inclusive, rights-based, victim-centered and whole-of-society approach.”
These are so many propositions needing to be fleshed out, thoroughly examined and critiqued – from the perspective of Philippine national security, economic and social well-being.
Regarding US funding support for the “swift operationalization” of the four additional EDCA sites, none so far has been reported onstream.
AFP chief Gen. Andres Centino admitted Wednesday that no “EDCA-related construction” has started neither on the Balabac, Palawan site (140 nautical miles from Panganiban Reef, now a Chinese military outpost), nor on the two sites in Cagayan and one in Isabela.
However, the AFP has begun building a three-kilometer runway and a concrete pier with beaching ramp in Balabac, which Gen. Centino checked on recently. The runway project is funded by the Philippine government at P700 million, for joint use by the Philippine Air Force and the Balabac municipality, while the pier (cost: P305 million) is being built at the Narciso del Rosario Naval Station.
Both projects will be offered for further development by the Americans as part of their EDCA site facilities in Balabac.
Published in Philippine Star
Last May 3, newly-crafted Bilateral Defense Guidelines (BDG) were released by the US State Department, which assert the treaty’s “enduring relevance” by “modernizing alliance cooperation in the service of the… shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific region.”
Specifically, the BDG reaffirm that an armed attack in the Pacific, “including anywhere in the South China Sea,” on either of their public vessels, aircraft or armed forces – which include their Coast Guards – “would invoke mutual defense commitments under Articles IV and V of the (MDT).”
Such attack threats include land, sea, air, space and cyberspace – through “asymmetric, hybrid and irregular warfare and grey-zone tactics.” Big words that need to be explained by experts, for which the guidelines would “chart a way forward to build interoperability in both conventional and non-conventional domains.”
To strengthen US-Philippine “combined deterrence in an evolving security environment,” the guidelines set the following objectives:
• Foster common understanding of roles, missions and capabilities within the alliance framework to face regional and global security challenges (which are mainly US concerns);
• Unify efforts across all areas of bilateral security and defense cooperation to sustain focus on principal regional security concerns; and
• Guide priority areas of defense cooperation to address both conventional and non-conventional security challenges of shared concern.
To advance these objectives, the guidelines say they need to:
• Modernize defense capabilities – Closely coordinate on the AFP modernization program by completing a Security Sector Assistance Roadmap; identify priority “defense platforms and force packages” that would bolster combined deterrence and capacity to resist coercion [presumably from China]; prioritize procurement of interoperable defense platforms (weaponry) “sourced from US programs” and the Philippines’ national defense procurement and funding initiatives and expand investments in non-weaponry defense capacity-building, via education and training exchanges, exercises and other operational activities.
• Deepen interoperability – Orient bilateral exercises and activities around improving/combining ability to counter armed attacks on either country as well as threats in space and cyberspace, while expanding the scope, scale and complexity of exercises; expand cooperation on maritime security and maritime domain awareness, by continued conduct of maritime activities, including but not limited to joint patrols (in the SCS/WPS); under the EDCA, strengthen interoperability, through infrastructure improvements, enhanced joint use of facilities, advancing additional maritime security, maritime domain awareness and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief capabilities; and rotational US access to EDCA sites.
• Enhance bilateral planning and information sharing – Conduct coordinated analysis, tabletop exercises and training/exercises to reinvigorate bilateral planning and coordination efforts; assess bilateral requirements and advance common objectives and approaches to shared challenges; develop adaptable decision-making processes and communication procedures to support flexible, timely, whole-of-government bilateral coordination and action to respond to conventional and non-conventional warfare.
Broaden information-sharing on early indications of threats to the peace and security of both countries, to ensure preparations to address principal challenges confronting the alliance; strive toward real-time information-sharing in collaboration with other departments and agencies to support deeper interoperability and operational coordination; enhance information security via consultations on policies, practices and procedures to protect classified defense and military information.
• Combat transnational and non-conventional threats – Improve cyber defense and cyber security cooperation to secure critical infrastructure and protect against attacks emanating from state and non-state actors; pursue capacity-building activities to respond to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear-related attacks and to counter the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Prior to the adoption of the guidelines, the US-Philippines 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue held in Washington (involving the two countries’ defense and foreign affairs chiefs), issued a joint statement on April 11, 2023.
The two sides committed to do the following:
• Strengthen bilateral planning and interoperability through conducting “high-impact and high-value” joint military exercises. These characterized the largest-ever Balikatan live-fire war games held in April involving more than 17,000 American and Filipino troops, including a few Australian soldiers.
• Accelerate the implementation of EDCA projects and increase investments in US facilities inside Philippine military bases to further support combined training exercises, interoperability and civilian-led Philippine disaster preparedness and response capabilities.
• By the end of fiscal-year 2023, the US is expected to have allocated $100 million toward infrastructure investments at the five existing EDCA sites and to support the “swift operationalization” of the four additional sites approved by Ferdinand Marcos Jr. last month.
• Complement combined military training exercises with USAID community-based activities in EDCA-related projects, including increasing access to safe water supply, education and health care.
• Expand cooperation, exchange best practices and increase “strategic convergence” in counter-terrorism and addressing grey-zone challenges, including protecting strategic infrastructure against attacks emanating from state and non-state actors; fostering “civilian-led, non-military counter-terrorism initiatives, where feasible and effective, using an inclusive, rights-based, victim-centered and whole-of-society approach.”
These are so many propositions needing to be fleshed out, thoroughly examined and critiqued – from the perspective of Philippine national security, economic and social well-being.
Regarding US funding support for the “swift operationalization” of the four additional EDCA sites, none so far has been reported onstream.
AFP chief Gen. Andres Centino admitted Wednesday that no “EDCA-related construction” has started neither on the Balabac, Palawan site (140 nautical miles from Panganiban Reef, now a Chinese military outpost), nor on the two sites in Cagayan and one in Isabela.
However, the AFP has begun building a three-kilometer runway and a concrete pier with beaching ramp in Balabac, which Gen. Centino checked on recently. The runway project is funded by the Philippine government at P700 million, for joint use by the Philippine Air Force and the Balabac municipality, while the pier (cost: P305 million) is being built at the Narciso del Rosario Naval Station.
Both projects will be offered for further development by the Americans as part of their EDCA site facilities in Balabac.
Published in Philippine Star
He worked as a business editor at the Manila Times and was elected vice president of the National Press Club from 1970-1972. Upon the declaration of the Martial Law, he fought the Marcos dictatorship, joined the revolutionary underground and helped found the National Democratic Front (NDF) in 1973. In 1976, he was arrested, severely tortured and detained for nine years – one of the longest – held detainee under martial law. In prison, he led hunger strikes and other protests against torture and other human rights abuses, gaining meaningful victories for fellow deatineed. In dramatic fashion, he escaped from captivity in 1985 and rejoined the underground movement.
With the dictatorship’s ouster in 1986, Satur resurfaced as head of the NDF negotiating panel in peace talks with the Aquino government. The talks were short-lived and eventually broke down due to the infamous Mendiola massacre on January 22, 1987. In 1989, Satur was rearrested with his wife Carolina “Bobbie” Malay, charged and tried with various crimes of which he was eventually acquitted. He regained freedom in 1992.
Over the next 10 years, Satur worked with various people’s organizations and human rights groups. He also went back to his old love of writing. He wrote columns and commentaries through the Philippine News and Features (PNF) and several newspapers.
In 2001, Satur led the Bayan Muna party in topping the party list elections with an unprecedented 11.7% of all votes cast. Thus began his career as a lawmaker for the marginalized and underrepresented sectors. The Bayan Muna victory opened up a new arena to advance the struggle for change and equal opportunity for all.
As a member of the House Majority from 2001-2005 and the Minority since 2005, Satur and his fellow progressive legislators have effectively used Congress as a forum to ventilate the people’s issues, pursue their well-being and oppose measures that infringe on their rights. THeir role as a genuine opposition has often put them at odds with the powers that be that in 2006, the Arroyo government attempted to arrest six of them on trumped up rebellion charges. The case was ordered dismissed by the Supreme Court in 2007.
As head of the progressive party-list bloc and Deputy Minority Leader in the 13th and 14th Congresses, Satur has spearheaded the fight for truth, justice, human rights and good governance in the face of the Arroyo administration’s abuses. He initiated the formation of the House Committee on Peace, Unity and Reconciliation which he initially headed. He also served as vice-chairperson of the Human Rights Committee. He continues to author bills and resolutions supporting human rights, peace, health, education, good governance, senior citizens, indigenous peoples and OFWs.
Satur has authored or co-authored several bills that were passed into law such as the Anti-torture Law (RA 9745), Tax Relief for Minimum Wage Earners Act of 2008 (RA 9504), Strengthening of Public Attorney’s Office Act of 2006 (RA 9406), Abolition of the Death Penalty (RA 9346), Anti-Violence Against Women and Children Act of 2004 (RA 9262), Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003 (RA 9208), and Overseas Absentee Voting Act of 2003 (RA 9189).
In May 2009, he was elected president of Makabayan, a coalition of progressive political parties and has been chosen to be one of its senatoriable candidates in the 2010 elections. He has also been president of Bayan Muna since 1999. (Source: https://saturocampo.wordpress.com/satur-profile/)]
May 20, 2023https://www.bulatlat.com/2023/05/20/at-ground-level-us-phl-update-defense-guidelines/
With the dictatorship’s ouster in 1986, Satur resurfaced as head of the NDF negotiating panel in peace talks with the Aquino government. The talks were short-lived and eventually broke down due to the infamous Mendiola massacre on January 22, 1987. In 1989, Satur was rearrested with his wife Carolina “Bobbie” Malay, charged and tried with various crimes of which he was eventually acquitted. He regained freedom in 1992.
Over the next 10 years, Satur worked with various people’s organizations and human rights groups. He also went back to his old love of writing. He wrote columns and commentaries through the Philippine News and Features (PNF) and several newspapers.
In 2001, Satur led the Bayan Muna party in topping the party list elections with an unprecedented 11.7% of all votes cast. Thus began his career as a lawmaker for the marginalized and underrepresented sectors. The Bayan Muna victory opened up a new arena to advance the struggle for change and equal opportunity for all.
As a member of the House Majority from 2001-2005 and the Minority since 2005, Satur and his fellow progressive legislators have effectively used Congress as a forum to ventilate the people’s issues, pursue their well-being and oppose measures that infringe on their rights. THeir role as a genuine opposition has often put them at odds with the powers that be that in 2006, the Arroyo government attempted to arrest six of them on trumped up rebellion charges. The case was ordered dismissed by the Supreme Court in 2007.
As head of the progressive party-list bloc and Deputy Minority Leader in the 13th and 14th Congresses, Satur has spearheaded the fight for truth, justice, human rights and good governance in the face of the Arroyo administration’s abuses. He initiated the formation of the House Committee on Peace, Unity and Reconciliation which he initially headed. He also served as vice-chairperson of the Human Rights Committee. He continues to author bills and resolutions supporting human rights, peace, health, education, good governance, senior citizens, indigenous peoples and OFWs.
Satur has authored or co-authored several bills that were passed into law such as the Anti-torture Law (RA 9745), Tax Relief for Minimum Wage Earners Act of 2008 (RA 9504), Strengthening of Public Attorney’s Office Act of 2006 (RA 9406), Abolition of the Death Penalty (RA 9346), Anti-Violence Against Women and Children Act of 2004 (RA 9262), Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003 (RA 9208), and Overseas Absentee Voting Act of 2003 (RA 9189).
In May 2009, he was elected president of Makabayan, a coalition of progressive political parties and has been chosen to be one of its senatoriable candidates in the 2010 elections. He has also been president of Bayan Muna since 1999. (Source: https://saturocampo.wordpress.com/satur-profile/)]
May 20, 2023https://www.bulatlat.com/2023/05/20/at-ground-level-us-phl-update-defense-guidelines/
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