AFP welcomes US fleet deployment

MANILA, Philippines - The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) sees nothing wrong with the deployment of a US Navy battle group in the West Philippine Sea as such would help strengthen freedom of navigation in the region.

AFP spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said on Friday that while they had no detailed information on the deployment, he considered it a welcome development.

On Friday, the US Navy 7th Fleet’s command and control ship USS Blue Ridge (LCC 19) docked at Pier 15 at Manila South Harbor in what the Philippine Navy said was a demonstration of US commitment to support a long-standing ally.

Navy spokesman Capt. Lued Lincuna said Blue Ridge’s 2,200 crewmembers under Capt. Ron Oswald were immediately briefed on security, intelligence and health issues by a Philippine Navy contingent led by Capt. Edward Ike de Sagon, commander of the Fleet-Marine Warfare Center.

The Japan-based Blue Ridge leaves Manila on March 9.

The US embassy, in a press statement, cited the Blue Ridge’s sterling record of service, including its key role in evacuating US nationals, Cambodians and Vietnamese from Phnom Penh and Saigon in 1975.

It saw action in operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in Kuwait and Iraq. The ship also was involved in disaster relief operations in Japan in the aftermath of the powerful 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.

“Personnel from LCC-19 and PN will also be engaged in a goodwill game of basketball in the duration of the visit,” Licuna said.

But just as the Blue Ridge was dropping anchor in Manila, US 7th Fleet Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Christopher Frost reported the presence of Chinese warships around the USS John C. Stennis Strike Group (JCSSG) in the South China Sea.

“We have Chinese around us that we normally didn’t see in my past experience,” the US 7th Fleet said, citing reports from Capt. Greg Huffman, USS Stennis commanding officer.

But Huffman made clear the communications exchange between the two navies was not hostile.

“The JCSSG is conducting routine operations in the South China Sea. The ships have maintained a location in the eastern half of these international waters for four days,” Frost reported.

The deployment was announced in a dispatch dated March 3 by the US Navy Times.

With Stennis were two destroyers, two cruisers and the Blue Ridge. The US embassy announced the arrival of Blue Ridge in Manila as routine visit.

“Stennis is joined in the region by USS Antietam and Mobile Bay, and destroyers Chung-Hoon and Stockdale. The command ship, Blue Ridge, floating headquarters of the Japan-based 7th Fleet, is also in the area, en route to a port visit in the Philippines,” the US Navy Times report said.

It added that Antietam was conducting routine patrol separate from the Stennis in the region.

“In my opinion China is clearly militarizing the South China Sea. You’d have to believe in a flat Earth to believe otherwise,” the US Navy Times quoted US Pacific Command head Admiral Harry Harris as telling US lawmakers.

Harris was referring to reports last month that China had deployed an advanced surface-to-air missile battery on the Paracel Islands.

There were also unconfirmed reports that Beijing had also set up anti-air defenses over its man-made islands in the Spratlys archipelago.