Miriam: Don't expect help from US

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines should not expect any help from the United States in asserting its territorial claim in the West Philippine Sea against China, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said yesterday.

“Wala tayong lakas sandata (We have no military might) – we don’t have resources for that kind of venture... Hindi tayo makaaasa sa America (We cannot rely on America),” Santiago said in a radio interview.

Santiago said the Philippines should seek the cooperation of the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to have a binding code of conduct among claimant countries.

“(We can tap) countries in the ASEAN. We can unite and tell China that we want a binding code of conduct,” Santiago said.

She expressed doubts that the US would come out with an unqualified show of support for the Philippines in the territorial dispute with China.

Santiago noted that the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) between the Philippines and the US mandates that if any party to the treaty is attacked, there would be an automatic response from the other party.

However, in case of an attack on the Philippines, the US cannot respond immediately without prior determination by its government, she said.

Santiago also said China is the world’s second largest economy and it also has ties with the US.

At the same time, Santiago condemned what she described as the maritime militarization waged by China in the West Philippine Sea, particularly the claiming of Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal.

Santiago said the ASEAN can have a unified and solid proposition concerning the disputes over the region.

“We should have passed a binding code of conduct. So we should tell other ASEAN countries,” she said.

Santiago said neighboring countries are also facing the risk of China’s aggressive actions over the disputed maritime resources in the West Philippine Sea.

She said the Group of 21 underdeveloped states had established guidelines on the establishment of the 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone, also dubbed as EEZ Group 21 in 2005.  

But the code of conduct drafted by the Group of 21 is not binding.

“Our hope is a regional code of conduct, EEZ review in Asia. EEZ Group 21 is not binding,” Santiago said. “It seems they are merely suggestions. There is no penalty involved. If it is binding, there should be communal penalty against the lawbreaker.”

Santiago said she will file a resolution before the Senate that will assert the territorial claim of the Philippines for Scarborough Shoal once Congress resumes session on May 7 after a six-week break.

“The Senate should pass a resolution proclaiming the Philippine claim over Scarborough Shoal… we will refer it to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), so that we can repeatedly say that that is ours. That’s (what) the customary international law (is all about),” Santiago said.

“We should be consistent in our claims. We have been consistent and have been practicing international customary law. That is the key in (resolving the maritime) problem,” she said.

Santiago said China’s strategy is to invoke customary international law by laying claim over the disputed islands through harvesting of its vast natural resources.

“The real object of China is not to claim Scarborough or Spratlys or any of our regime of islands. The real goal is to beat any other nations in exploiting the natural resources of those seas,” the senator said over radio station dzBB.

For his part, Ang Kasangga party-list Rep. Teodorico Haresco urged the government to press the US for a clear security commitment for the country in the event of a shooting war in the disputed area.

Haresco also supported calls for Filipinos, including those overseas, to wage a “shame campaign” against China for its “aggressive actions in our own territory.”

“Reaffirmation is not enough, we must also level up. Our MDT is antiquated,” Haresco said in referring to the 1951 defense treaty with the US.

The Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) also supported President Aquino’s move to “internationalize” the issue against China.

“While we respect China’s position that the matter should be confined only between them and us, it is obvious that Beijing is using its superior strength and size to intimidate Manila into giving in to their will in connection with the Scarborough Shoal,” said Valenzuela City Rep. Rex Gatchalian, spokesman for NPC.

Gatchalian said both China and the Philippines are signatories to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).  

He said China ratified UNCLOS on July 6, 1996, thereby agreeing to be bound by its provisions, one of which is that anything within 200 miles from the baseline of a country belongs to that country.

Impractical

In recommendations to have a joint exploration with China in the disputed islands, Santiago said the DFA “should not lose (view) of the fact that we are laggards in sea technology.”  

By the time the Philippines is ready for any joint exploration, Santiago lamented that China may have harvested all maritime resources in the area because they have the technology.

A member of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Santiago recognized that bringing the issue before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Seas (ITLOS) or the UNCLOS would take a toll on the Philippine claim.

She said a case before UNCLOS would warrant determination of cause. There is also a process called conciliation between opposing parties for possible compulsory settlement. 

Santiago also said that bringing the maritime dispute before an arbitrary or even special arbitrary tribunal would also mean that a party will have to accept the decision without any appeal.

“Malabo yan (impractical). China will only delay a case before the ITLOS. While they delay the process, they will continue harvesting from our waters. They will not engage us in a gunfight. We will also not engage them,” Santiago said.

It will be an unpopular move if China launches a war against the Philippines, since they will risk the condemnation of the entire world, she said.

“They will try to prove that they have customary international law in their favor,” Santiago said, adding that this has been the Chinese strategy all the while.

China said it had made “stern representations” to the Philippines about its proposal for international arbitration over Scarborough Shoal, site of the most recent standoff between the two sides.

Noting the apparent standoff in the disputed area, Santiago said China is “twirling us around its little finger.”

“They are playing us. They are not really bullying us. They are entrapping us into our own mental concept. The US State Department does not want to comment on this,” Santiago said. 

China has maritime spats with several countries in the South China, renamed by the Philippines as West Philippine Sea, which is believed to be rich in oil and gas and crossed by important shipping lanes, and its neighbors fear its growing naval reach in staking claims.

Those disputes are pushing the Philippines to seek closer cooperation with the US, which in turn has prompted China to warn Washington against getting involved, denouncing last week’s Balikatan exercises, the annual US-Philippine military drills, as bringing the risk of armed conflict closer.

Philippine security officials are in top-level talks with the US tomorrow with China likely to be high on the agenda as Washington refocuses its foreign policy on Asia and Manila realizes its limits in trying to solve territorial disputes with Beijing alone.

“I’m sure we need to be diplomatic, but I don’t think we should tip-toe around the Chinese on this,” said Walter Lohman, director of the Asian Studies Center with the conservative Washington-based Heritage Foundation think tank.

“There is nothing new about the US exercising with the Philippines. We should not refrain because the Chinese don’t like it. In fact, I expect the (Washington meeting) will come up with some agreement on increasing the frequency and variety of exercises, ship visits. Also expect agreement on hardware, joint use of Philippines’ training facilities and bases,” he said.

Manila’s moves to strengthen security ties with its former colonial master coincide with the US foreign policy “pivot” toward Asia to concentrate on, among other things, North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and China’s military buildup.

Twenty years after the Philippines voted to remove American bases, it now wants to give US troops more access to its ports and airfields.

“We enjoy a really close military-to-military relationship with the Philippines and I think certainly coming out of this 2+2, we will be looking for ways to improve and enhance that relationship,” said Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. John Kirby, referring to talks between the defense and foreign secretaries, the highest-level security talks yet between the two sides.

“But it is safe to say that... our relationship with the Philippines is part and parcel of the larger shift to focus on the Asia-Pacific,” he said. – Christina Mendez, Paolo Romero