ANGELES CITY- A group whose members are adversely affected by the standoff at the Scarborough shoal in Zambales urged Pres. Aquino to stop or at least suspend the ongoing joint US-PH Balikatan military exercises and instead “stage a massive diplomatic campaign” to resolve the country’s territorial conflict with China.
In a statement, the fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) the President “to instruct the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to issue an administrative order putting an immediate halt to joint war games between US and Filipino troops.”
“We strongly suggest to the President to stop if not indefinitely suspend the holding of Balikatan exercises in the country and focus his efforts in addressing several serious issues arising from the ongoing conflict between Manila and Beijing over Scarborough Shoal,” said the statement signed by Pamalakaya national chairperson Fernando Hicap and his vice chairperson Salvador France.
They noted that “the presence of US troops in the country and the holding of Balikatan exercises in the disputed islands and territorial waters are contributing to the growing tension between PH and Beijing.
As of now we are locked in gunboat diplomacy and psy-war adventures in Scarborough Shoal and we don’t want to explode this into a shooting war.”
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Sunday shrugged off China’s warning that the military exercises between US and Filipino troops could lead to a confrontation with Beijing.
A spokesman for the military said China had no reason to feel concerned about the ongoing Balikatan exercises that started last week and will end on April 27.
Pamalakaya noted that some of the areas covered by the current Balikatan exercises are areas claimed by China as part of their national territory.
Last week, Pamalakaya filed a diplomatic protest with the Chinese embassy decrying the “aggressive incursion of Chinese vessels into the Philippines exclusive economic zone (EEZ)”, describing this as “political bullying and outrageous gunboat diplomacy.”
Hicap and France said “Beijing was guilty of violating the sovereign rights of the Filipino people and the country’s territorial integrity.”
Pamalakaya urged Beijing to be “open to diplomatic resolutions” and expressed fears that China’s “aggressive assertion over Scarborough Shoal might be exploited by the US government to send more troops to the Philippines and engage in full-blown military intervention and aggression in the country and in East Asia and the Pacific region.”
Pamalakaya said “the Philippine government is building a mini-Subic Naval Base in Pag-asa Island located in the West Philippine Sea to enable the country to host more than 4,000 US troops which the US government will redeploy from its Okinawa base in Japan on rotation basis.”
The group was referring the plan to develop the 37 hectare Pag-Asa Island in Spratlys to a seaport and eco-tourism destination which, it insisted, would function as a virtual US naval base.
At the same time, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) urged the Chinese government “put an end to its aggressive posturing” and the US government to “ pull out all its interventionist troops in the Philippines.
In a statement, the CPP identified these measures as “key elements to achieve peaceful resolution of conflicts over Scarborough Shoal and Spratly Islands.”
The CPP insisted that US military presence in the Philippines, and not necessarily interest in the shoal and islands, that is provoking China’s bullying.
“Increasing American military presence in the Philippines and Asia-Pacific has provided China with the compulsion to make aggressive claims of sovereignty over areas which can be viewed as comprising its international perimeter,” the CPP said.
It said that “without the threat of US military encirclement, China can be objectively expected to negotiate on the basis of mutual respect and equality.”
The CPP noted that “as an international capitalist power with strong claims of national sovereignty, China will not sit back and allow the US to encircle it.”
However, the CPP said “it is a matter of principle for the Filipino people to assert national sovereignty and territorial integrity over the Spratly Islands and the Scarborough Shoal.
It is also a matter of principle for the Filipino people to demand a peaceful resolution of the conflicting claims through diplomatic negotiations on the basis of equality, respect and mutual benefit.”
It urged the Chinese government “to stand down, put an end to its aggressive posturing, pull back its armed patrol ships from the Scarborough Shoal, and recognize and respect existing international agreements including the Declaration of Code of Conduct which it signed with other ASEAN countries in 2002 calling for the peaceful resolution of the sovereignty disputes through multilateral negotiations.”
But the CPP insisted that the US government should also “pull out all its interventionist troops in the Philippines, put an end to the so-called joint military exercises and cease all power projection activities in the South China Sea including the rotational docking of large American aircraft carriers in the Philippines, Singapore and Australia.”
