The Philippines Considers Scrapping Defense Treaty With U.S.

Philippines’ Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana gestures as he delivers a speech during the closing ceremony of the annual joint US-Philippines (TED ALJIBE/AFP/Getty Images)

 

China could gain a major victory in the region if the 67-year-old U.S.-Philippines mutual defense treaty changes.

The government of the Philippines is considering revising the country’s Mutual Defense Treaty with the United States. The review will aim to decide whether “to maintain it, strengthen it, or scrap it,” Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said on December 28.

Signed in 1951, the treaty between the Philippines and the U.S. requires each nation to support the other if one of them is attacked. Under this treaty, the Philippines has been protected by the world’s superpower for a lifetime.

Philippines to move air force, navy camps for faster access to disputed South China Sea areas

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines plans to relocate major air force and navy camps to a former U.S. naval base northwest of Manila to gain faster access to waters being contested by China in the South China Sea, according to the country’s defense chief and a confidential government report.

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said Sunday that as soon as relocation funds are available the government plans to transfer air force and naval forces and their fleets of aircraft and warships to Subic Bay, which has become a busy free port since the 1992 departure of the U.S. Navy.

“It’s for the protection of our West Philippine Sea,” Gazmin said from South Korea, where he was on a visit, using the name adopted by the Philippine government for the disputed South China Sea.

PH rebukes China for militarizing sea

The Philippines on Sunday accused China of a “massive military buildup” in the disputed West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), warning a Southeast Asian security forum that Beijing’s tactics were a threat to peace in the region.

…

Speaking at the 46th Asean ministerial meeting in Brunei, Del Rosario said China’s “increasing militarization” of two shoals in the West Philippine Sea was a violation of the Declaration of Conduct in the sea that the 10 members of the bloc signed with Beijing in 2002, agreeing not to cause tensions in the area.

Chinese expert: If tensions escalate, US support for PHL, Japan will be ‘limited’

The United States will only give “limited” support to Japan and the Philippines if ever the situation between the two countries and China worsens, a Chinese expert said Wednesday.

A report posted on Chinese website SINA quoted Ruan Zongze, vice president and senior research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS), as saying that he expects that the US  won’t “go too far” in supporting Japan and the Philippines.