PHL must seek defense manufacturing pacts with its allies — security analyst
By John Victor D. Ordoñez, Reporter
THE PHILIPPINES must seek out more defense partnerships with its global allies amid increasing aggression by China’s coast guard in areas of the South China Sea that are well within Manila’s exclusive economic zone, security analysts said at the weekend.
“Manila must leverage its partnerships to improve its national manufacturing capabilities in critical industries and motivate partners to engage in technology transfers beyond the buyer-seller framework,” Don Mclain Gill, who teaches international relations at De La Salle University, said in a Facebook Messenger chat.
Last week, the Philippines summoned China’s envoy to protest its coast guard’s use of water cannons that damaged two of Manila’s vessels in the South China Sea.
Philippine officials called out China when a Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) ship and a fishery vessel were damaged after Chinese coast guard vessels fired water cannons at them while on their way to the disputed Scarborough Shoal to help Filipino fishermen.
“While this internationalization of its maritime security problem may not immediately push China’s aggressions back, it is extremely important to building the Philippines’ long-term security capacity, as well as increasing its leverage in dealing with Beijing in the future,” Raymond M. Powell, a fellow at Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, said in an X message.
Aaron Jed Rabena, who specializes in geopolitics and foreign policy at the University of Philippines Asian Center, said there has been a shift in public sentiment on the Philippine government’s efforts in the South China Sea.
“There has been a shift from resentment towards China to the feeling of inadequacy with the response of our coast guard,” he said in a Facebook Messenger chat. “There is a clamor now from the public, if you would look at any comment section on news reports about this, most of them would say that the Philippine side needs to do more and needs to resist.”
Last Tuesday, the PCG said two China Coast Guard ships had used jet stream water cannons against its vessel sailing some 1,000 yards away from the Scarborough Shoal, resulting in damage to its railing and canopy.
A Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources vessel’s electrical, navigation and radio systems were also damaged after being rammed thrice by Beijing’s coast guard vessels,
Manila summoned Zhou Zhiyong, deputy chief of mission of the Chinese Embassy in Manila in March after the Chinese coast guard fired a water cannon at a Philippine resupply mission near Second Thomas Shoal, where Manila grounded a World War II-era ship in 1999 to assert its sovereignty.
Lucio B. Pitlo III, who is also a research fellow at the Asia-Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation, said the government of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. is likely to continue deepening its security ties with the United States, Australia and Japan to counter Chinese aggression.
“Manila will likely coordinate with these countries in how to respond to China’s increased assertiveness in the West Philippine Sea,” he said in a Facebook Messenger chat.
The Philippines and the US are holding their annual Balikatan (shoulder-to-shoulder) military exercises until May 18 with 5,000 Filipino soldiers and 11,000 American servicemen participating in the war games. Mr. Marcos earlier said he was considering to include Japan in the exercises amid worsening tensions in the South China Sea.
The Philippine Senate last year passed a bill that seeks to boost the country’s defense program through investments in local defense equipment manufacturing amid tensions with Beijing.
Tensions between the Philippines and China have worsened in the past year as Beijing continues to block Manila’s resupply missions to Second Thomas Shoal, where it grounded a World War II-era ship in 1999 to assert its sovereignty.
In 2016, a United Nations-backed tribunal in the Hague voided China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea. It also upheld the rights of small-scale Filipino and Chinese fishermen to fish at Scarborough Shoal.
“Practically speaking, China has shown that it has no incentive to tone down its salami-slicing strategy in the South China Sea,” Mr. Gill said.
“While it is difficult to change China’s behavior for the short term, Manila must give great focus to improving its national capabilities to better position itself in the region in the long term.”
