The Philippines and Japan have an extraordinary bond, a brotherhood that is not only historical as it is cultural. The first Japanese and Filipino traders were established centuries prior to the arrival of the Spanish. In fact, Japanese vases are even found in some of the old wreckage sites in Butuan City , which is deep in the south of the Philippines, which illustrates the capacity of the Japanese-Filipino trade links.
WWII was a painful chapter in our historical relationship, tho I am, as many other Japanese, proud to see how both our peoples and nations have risen since the end of the War.
I wish for both Japan and the Philippines to deepen in regards to partnership. May the Japanese and Filipino cooperation ever remain strong, and our friendship last forever.
I couldn't say it any better Nihonjin.
God bless the Philippines
Japan.
Philippines eyed for advanced US air, navy weaponry
By Pia Lee-Brago (The Philippine Star) | April 16, 2015
Philippines seeks substantive US support on sea row
MANILA, Philippines - The United States wants to deploy advanced air and naval equipment to the Philippines, which is seeking “substantive support” from its long-time ally amid China’s massive reclamation activities in the West Philippine Sea.
This was according to Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario, who cited US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter’s recent pronouncements. The type or kind of military equipment and materiel was not specified.
“According to the new Department of Defense secretary in the United States, Secretary Carter, they are already looking at deploying to the Philippines various advanced equipment, air force equipment, naval equipment, maritime domain equipment. These were outlined by Secretary Carter recently and we welcome this,” Del Rosario said in an interview on ANC.
Carter’s announcement came after US President Barack Obama expressed concern over China’s using its “sheer size and muscle” to push around smaller nations in the region, particularly the Philippines.
“The first time that it was announced was a few days ago... this is the first time we are hearing about it. We have not engaged in discussion so we will find out more about what these plans involve,” Del Rosario said.
He said the equipment – possibly to include a weapons system – would be manned by US personnel.
“It will require US presence. We have not talked about what extent this will happen but with those equipment you can surmise that there will be a US presence,” he added.
“We are, at this point, seeking additional support from the United States in terms of being able to take a stronger position in defending our position, which is to uphold the rule of law,” Del Rosario told journalists later yesterday.
Del Rosario is set to visit the US in two weeks to meet with members of the US Congress, with whom he is likely to discuss the developments in the West Philippine Sea, particularly China’s massive reclamation activities.
A meeting with Carter and US Secretary of State John Kerry is also expected to take place during Del Rosario’s visit.
He noted that the US government is looking at the South China Sea and West Philippine Sea problem in terms of three elements – China’s massive reclamation activities, construction of facilities such as airstrips and harbors, and the militarization of these facilities.
“The Philippines is saying that we should get together and study how we can uphold the rule of law together not only with the United States but with the entire international community,” he said.
Del Rosario reiterated that the reclamation projects were proof of China’s aggression in the region.
“And not only are they using it to define the nine-dash line but they feel that it will serve to undermine our case with the arbitral tribunal because what they are trying to do is they are taking features and changing the character and nature and the maritime entitlements of those features,” Del Rosario said.
“They are not allowed to do that but UNCLOS says that even if they do that, the UNCLOS will look not at what there is now but what it was before they built these features,” he said, referring to the reclaimed lands in the West Philippine Sea.
The Philippines protested China’s seven massive reclamation activities, saying they were a violation not only of international law but also of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC).
The DOC calls for self-restraint in the West Philippine Sea and South China Sea, including altering of features in contested waters.
“We are looking at our options now,” Del Rosario said without elaborating.
Next week, 11,500 Filipino and American soldiers are taking part in the largest-ever 10-day war games in the Philippines, called Balikatan (shoulder-to-shoulder), setting into motion the US rebalance to Asia policy.
China claims most of the potentially energy rich South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have overlapping claims.
China yesterday bristled at recent comments by President Aquino in an interview with AFP.
Aquino said China is engendering fear around the world with its posture in the South China Sea’s disputed waters, and that it’s possible conflict over territorial disputes could break out.
“The accusation is groundless,” said Hong Lei, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, in a regular briefing. “We urge the Philippines to respect China’s territorial sovereignty.”
The Philippines has called “unacceptable” China’s assurance that its massive reclamation in the West Philippine Sea was not causing environmental damage. Manila earlier said coastal communities are facing $100-million losses annually from China’s reclamation activities, citing a United Nations Environment Program study.
China is tolerating environmentally harmful fishing practices by its nationals at Bajo de Masinloc, also called Panatag Shoal or Scarborough Shoal off Zambales, according to Philippine authorities.
The Philippines has also expressed concern over China’s announcement that the reclaimed islands and reefs would provide comprehensive services to meet various fisheries and maritime demands.
The DFA said such statements by China only “serve to raise the specter of increasing militarization and threaten peace and stability in the region.”
Analyst say China’s vigorous reclamation activities in the West Philippine Sea were being done in anticipation of an adverse ruling on its position by the international arbitral court based in The Hague.
In 2014, the Philippines submitted a voluminous memorial or written argument of its position on the West Philippine Sea issue to the arbitral court. The court, however, has no powers to enforce its ruling.
Supply problem
Meanwhile, China has reportedly turned to its citizens with businesses in Southeast Asian countries for help in providing supplies for its personnel and troops currently engaged in massive reclamation operations in the West Philippine Sea, a source in the intelligence community said.
“Facing difficulties in sustaining the presence of their personnel in the region China has turned to its citizens based in Southeast Asia to solve this problem as Hainan is very far,” the source said.
He said several fishing boats seen unloading supplies for the Chinese were found to be Chinese-owned but had come from nearby countries, particularly Malaysia.
China’s occupied area in the Spratlys is 580 miles away from its nearest territory in Hainan’s Yulin naval base, thus making it very costly to deliver food and other provisions needed by thousands of its construction personnel, sailors and marines currently staying in the disputed region.
“We even suspect that the Chinese are also getting food and drinking water, one way or the other, from enterprising Filipinos employed on these foreign-registered fishing boats as we monitored an increasing demand of this basic need to sustain human survival,” the source said.
Kalayaan Mayor Eugenio Bito-onon Jr. expressed doubt on the veracity of the report, saying he had not been notified of the development.
Kalayaan town is a fifth class municipality in Palawan located on Pag-Asa Island, the second biggest island in the Spratlys archipelago.
“It’s highly unlikely that these things are now happening out there,” Bito-onon said. –
Jaime Laude
A New Twist in the South China Sea Showdown
Nationalinterest
Malcolm Cook
April 15, 2015
Elections are rarely decided by foreign policy issues, but election results can decide foreign policy issues.
The 2016 Philippines presidential election looks like it could lead to a sharp change in Manila's approach to its maritime boundary disputes with China in the West Philippine Sea. The US, Indonesia and Vietnam are taking firmer and more active positions on the South China Sea disputes involving China in the face of Beijing's aggressive reclamation activities targeting Philippine claims. President Aquino has won international support for the Philippines' firm stance.
But his most likely successor could significantly soften Philippine policy towards China on this issue.
Vice-President Jejomar Binay, despite being the focus of a Senate Blue Ribbon Committee investigating alleged corruption, is the clear front-runner for the 2016 elections. In the latest Pulse Asia poll on 2016 presidential candidates, Binay garnered 29% support, a clear 15% ahead of Senator Grace Poe in second at 14% and a full 25% ahead of Manuel 'Mar' Roxas (Aquino's presumed favoured candidate), at 4%.
(Recommended: China Dominates the Scramble for the South China Sea)
Binay has no foreign policy experience, having risen to national prominence as long-time Mayor of Makati, the wealthiest city in Metro Manila and the country. In one of his first extended interviews addressing foreign policy issues, Binay focused on the prospects for joint Philippines-Chinese development of natural resources in the West Philippine Sea, and downplayed the case filed by the Aquino Administration to the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea regarding the Philippines' maritime boundary disputes with China. The ruling on this landmark case is expected to be delivered in mid-2016, potentially at the same time Binay takes over as president.
Binay: 'China has money, we need capital'
Apr 14, 2015
Vice President Jejomar Binay calls for a 'joint venture' with China in developing the resources in the disputed South China Sea
MANILA, Philippines – In a preview of his approach toward China if elected president, Vice President Jejomar Binay stressed China's economic might as he pushed for bilateral talks between Manila and Beijing over the disputed South China Sea.
"May pera po ang China, kailangan po natin ng kapital (China has money, we need capital)," Binay said in an interview on Saturday, April 12, over the radio station DZYM in Catarman, Northern Samar.
His office sent to reporters the transcript of the interview on Tuesday, April 14.
In particular, he called for a "joint venture" between the Philippines and China in developing the natural resources in the South China Sea, parts of which the Philippines calls the West Philippine Sea.
The Vice President – who wants to become Philippine president in 2016 – said he hopes the Philippines can improve its trade relations with China despite the maritime dispute.
Binay made these comments days before President Benigno Aquino III on Tuesday said China's actions in the South China Sea
should spark fear around the world.
Earlier, the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) slammed China for building artificial islands in the West Philippine Sea.
On Monday, April 13, the DFA said China's reclamation activities in the disputed waters
have destroyed 300 acres of coral reefs and resulted in around $100 million in economic losses among coastal states.
In contrast to Binay's personal stance, the Philippines under Aquino has issued more provocative statements against the Asian giant.
Sea row 'until after death'
The Philippines' boldest move against China came in January 2013. It filed an arbitration case against China before an arbitral tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration based in The Hague, The Netherlands, to demolish China's expansive claims over the South China Sea.
Pursuing this case, the Philippines filed a 4,000-page memorial or pleading against China in March 2014, and
submitted a 3,000-page supplemental memorial in March 2015.
Manila expects a ruling against China by 2016.
Binay pointed out, however, that China will refuse to heed the arbitral tribunal's ruling.
For him, this means the Philippines should continue its dialogue with China over the two countries' competing claims over the South China Sea, which the Philippines calls the West Philippine Sea.
"'Yung problema natin sa Tsina, nakakalungkot, pero tanggapin po natin na hindi naman po matatapos 'yan kaagad. Siguro, ilang taon na tayong namamatay eh hindi pa rin nareresolba 'yan," he said in the radio interview.
(The problem with China, sadly, will not be resolved immediately. Perhaps we would have died by many years, and we wouldn't have resolved the problem.)
In a position close to Binay's, Filipino-Chinese businessmen earlier said the Philippines should set aside its differences with China to avoid missed opportunities for the Southeast Asian country.
Dr Alfonso Siy, president of the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Incorporated,
said in February: "The Chinese are getting rich and starting to travel. Chinese tourists are very rich and love to spend money so it’s a good opportunity to get more businesses, income, and create jobs."
Latest government data show China is the Philippines' third biggest trading partner, following Japan and the United States.
-----------------
So the very thing that Aquino is fighting for since day 1 will be put to waste once this man ever be elected as President. Do you think he's trying to be practical in a way that our country will gain more?