Duterte Seeks Arms From China, Ends Joint Patrols With U.S.
Norman P Aquino
normanpaquino
Andreo Calonzo
September 13, 2016 — 5:57 AM EDT Updated on September 13, 2016 — 7:39 AM EDT
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Philippine leader says figher jets like F-16s of no use to him
Ending joint patrols with U.S. in disputed South China Sea
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said he’s considering buying weapons from Russia and China while also ending joint patrols with U.S. forces in the South China Sea.
In a televised speech Tuesday before military officers in Manila, Duterte said that two countries -- which he didn’t identify -- had agreed to give the Philippines a 25-year soft loan to buy military equipment. Later, he said that Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and “technical people” in the armed forces would visit China and Russia “and see what’s best.”
While Duterte said he didn’t want to cut the “umbilical cord” with his allies, the remarks were the latest to signal a shift away from the Philippine-U.S. defense treaty in place since 1951. Since engaging in a public spat with U.S. President Barack Obama last week, Duterte has denounced American military killings during the early days of colonial rule and called for U.S. forces to leave the southern island of Mindanao.
“Duterte seems to be putting into action his latest remarks about trying to implement an independent foreign policy,” said Eduardo Tadem, a lecturer of Asian Studies at the University of the Philippines. “The problem is what’s the quid pro quo? What will the Chinese especially get in exchange?"
‘I Don’t Need Jets’
On Tuesday, Duterte said the Philippines needs propeller-driven planes that it can use against insurgents and fight terrorists in Mindanao. He said he wanted to buy arms “where they are cheap and where there are no strings attached and it is transparent.”
“I don’t need jets, F-16 -- that’s of no use to us,” Duterte said. “We don’t intend to fight any country.”
Since 1950, the U.S. has accounted for about 75 percent of the Philippines’ arms imports, according to a database from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Russia and China haven’t supplied any weapons in that time, it showed.
The U.S. would probably move diplomatically to prevent the Philippines from procuring a major defense system from China, according to Jon Grevatt, an defense industry analyst at IHS Jane’s in Bangkok. The Southeast Asian nation’s defense procurement budget climbed to 25 billion pesos ($524 million) this year, up more than 60 percent from 2015, according to IHS Janes data.
‘Rub Their Hands With Glee’
“To suggest that they would move away from the U.S. -- their long traditional partner -- is quite a move if it actually happens," Grevatt said. “China and Russia would rub their hands with glee for any opportunity to enter the market."
Duterte also said the Philippines won’t participate in expeditions patrolling South China Sea to avoid being involved in a “hostile act.” “I just want to patrol our territorial waters,” he said.
The U.S. began joint patrols with the Philippines earlier this year prior to Duterte’s election win in May. The allies had sought to boost military cooperation to counter China’s claims to more than four-fifths of the South China Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
‘Rock Solid’
In an e-mailed statement on Tuesday, the Armed Forces of the Philippines said that defense relations with the U.S. remain “rock solid” and activities planned this year would continue without interruption. The military had yet to receive a specific directive on how Duterte’s pronouncement on Mindanao would be carried out, it said.
Reacting to Duterte’s pronouncement on Mindanao, Pentagon spokesman Commander Gary Ross said on Monday that the U.S.-Philippine relationship “has been a cornerstone of stability for over 70 years.”
“We will continue to consult closely with our Filipino partners to appropriately tailor our assistance to whatever approach the new Administration adopts,” Ross said.
Duterte spokesman Ernesto Abella said in a televised briefing earlier Tuesday that the president’s statement that American soldiers should leave Mindanao was not yet policy, but the basis for possible action.
“Those statements are not policy set in stone, not policy yet,” Abella said.
The move to end joint patrols in the South China Sea signals Duterte’s intention to improve ties with China, according to Shen Shishun, a senior researcher at the China Institute of International Studies under China’s Foreign Ministry.
“The Philippines got little out of it, and it offended the Chinese, with whom they could have done more business with," Shen said. “Duterte saw this point and made a practical decision."
Duterte can’t afford foreign enemies
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The Nation/Asia News Network
September 13th, 2016 02:06 PM
ASEAN Laos Duterte 11
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte listens to the discussions in the plenary session of the ASEAN Summit in Vientiane, Laos on September 6. KING RODRIGUEZ/PPD
BANGKOK–In an ideal world, sovereign nations would maintain the unchallenged authority to implement any policy without other countries attempting to intervene, not even the superpowers on which so much depends in our interconnected world. In reality, however, no national leader has the freedom to pursue policies deemed inappropriate by the international community.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was reminded of this at last week’s Asean summit in Vientiane. Using his characteristic gutter language, he had earlier warned his United States counterpart, Barack Obama – also attending the summit – that he would brook no lecturing about his “war on drugs”, which has seen nearly 3,000 users and dealers summarily executed in the two months he’s been in office.
READ: Duterte: I’m no fan of US
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Obama promptly cancelled an appointment to meet Duterte privately on the sidelines of the Asean session. Gone abruptly was the chance to get the US more firmly on Manila’s side over the territorial dispute in the South China Sea. Presumably the presidential aides did some behind-the-scenes scrambling, though, and their bosses had a brief encounter after all. Both Obama, whose term of office ends in January, and Duterte, who can’t afford to anger such a powerful ally and trading partner, understood the importance of patching up their squabble.
“If we’re working with a country – whether it’s on anti-terrorism, whether it’s on going after drug traffickers,” Obama told reporters after they met, “as despicable as these networks may be, as much damage as they do, it is important from our perspective to make sure that we do it the right way. Because the consequence of when you do it the wrong way is innocent people get hurt and you have a whole bunch of unintended consequences that don’t solve the problem.”
Thus Obama won the duel. Duterte’s brashness achieved nothing. Words that might have reinforced his reputation as a maverick and a tough merely caused embarrassment for his government and countrymen. Stubborn to the end, he only made matters worse by lying to Filipino expatriates in Indonesia, after the Vientiane summit, that in fact he’d never called Obama a “son of a whore” as charged.
President Duterte is going to have to adjust his style and rein in his rhetoric if he wants his country to maintain good relations with others. Better still, he should change course in his efforts to end the drug problem. As Obama pointed out, narcotics are a major problem for all nations, but efforts to suppress them must be conducted in accordance with democratic standards and the rule of law. Nowhere else in the world apart from in the Philippines, he might have added, are the police and vigilantes encouraged by the state to shoot dead people simply suspected of involvement.
Under democracy – still the best form of government despite totalitarianism’s creeping revival – suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty in court. If convicted, the law of the land prescribes the punishment or more humane treatment. Street justice, fraught with the possibility of haste and error, has no place in a civilised nation.
As for the conflict over rival claims to territory in the South China Sea, which is of crucial importance not just to Philippine sovereignty but also to the stability of the whole region, Manila might gain credit in Beijing by moving outside Washington’s sphere of influence. But American support in this matter is a bargaining chip that Duterte cannot afford to lose. Smart leaders don’t limit their options in striking global deals.
READ: Duterte and China
Duterte’s blunder at his first international summit needn’t become a syndrome. He only has to reconsider policy, adopt more careful strategy and curb his bad manners./rga
Read more: http://globalnation.inquirer.net/144...#ixzz4K8QEkSSj
Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook
SHARES: 2092 VIEW COMMENTS
The Nation/Asia News Network
September 13th, 2016 02:06 PM
ASEAN Laos Duterte 11
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte listens to the discussions in the plenary session of the ASEAN Summit in Vientiane, Laos on September 6. KING RODRIGUEZ/PPD
BANGKOK–In an ideal world, sovereign nations would maintain the unchallenged authority to implement any policy without other countries attempting to intervene, not even the superpowers on which so much depends in our interconnected world. In reality, however, no national leader has the freedom to pursue policies deemed inappropriate by the international community.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was reminded of this at last week’s Asean summit in Vientiane. Using his characteristic gutter language, he had earlier warned his United States counterpart, Barack Obama – also attending the summit – that he would brook no lecturing about his “war on drugs”, which has seen nearly 3,000 users and dealers summarily executed in the two months he’s been in office.
READ: Duterte: I’m no fan of US
ADVERTISEMENT
Obama promptly cancelled an appointment to meet Duterte privately on the sidelines of the Asean session. Gone abruptly was the chance to get the US more firmly on Manila’s side over the territorial dispute in the South China Sea. Presumably the presidential aides did some behind-the-scenes scrambling, though, and their bosses had a brief encounter after all. Both Obama, whose term of office ends in January, and Duterte, who can’t afford to anger such a powerful ally and trading partner, understood the importance of patching up their squabble.
“If we’re working with a country – whether it’s on anti-terrorism, whether it’s on going after drug traffickers,” Obama told reporters after they met, “as despicable as these networks may be, as much damage as they do, it is important from our perspective to make sure that we do it the right way. Because the consequence of when you do it the wrong way is innocent people get hurt and you have a whole bunch of unintended consequences that don’t solve the problem.”
Thus Obama won the duel. Duterte’s brashness achieved nothing. Words that might have reinforced his reputation as a maverick and a tough merely caused embarrassment for his government and countrymen. Stubborn to the end, he only made matters worse by lying to Filipino expatriates in Indonesia, after the Vientiane summit, that in fact he’d never called Obama a “son of a whore” as charged.
President Duterte is going to have to adjust his style and rein in his rhetoric if he wants his country to maintain good relations with others. Better still, he should change course in his efforts to end the drug problem. As Obama pointed out, narcotics are a major problem for all nations, but efforts to suppress them must be conducted in accordance with democratic standards and the rule of law. Nowhere else in the world apart from in the Philippines, he might have added, are the police and vigilantes encouraged by the state to shoot dead people simply suspected of involvement.
Under democracy – still the best form of government despite totalitarianism’s creeping revival – suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty in court. If convicted, the law of the land prescribes the punishment or more humane treatment. Street justice, fraught with the possibility of haste and error, has no place in a civilised nation.
As for the conflict over rival claims to territory in the South China Sea, which is of crucial importance not just to Philippine sovereignty but also to the stability of the whole region, Manila might gain credit in Beijing by moving outside Washington’s sphere of influence. But American support in this matter is a bargaining chip that Duterte cannot afford to lose. Smart leaders don’t limit their options in striking global deals.
READ: Duterte and China
Duterte’s blunder at his first international summit needn’t become a syndrome. He only has to reconsider policy, adopt more careful strategy and curb his bad manners./rga
Read more: http://globalnation.inquirer.net/144...#ixzz4K8QEkSSj
Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook
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