State of confusion

DON’T KILL the messengers (aka the media) — but whether the US-PH high-level talks will push through this March is still a bit confusing at this juncture.
Last week, Philstar.com reported that talks between the United States and the Philippines regarding the US’ military presence in the Philippines “may have to be postponed unless the Aquino administration can come up with specific proposals on where to keep US spy planes and warships on a rotational basis.” This was based on statements made by “informed diplomatic sources.”
This week, Inquirer.net reported that next month’s talks will push through, as ascertained by Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario. The talks are still tentatively scheduled for March and the DFA Secretary said that “he has not heard otherwise.”
According to Philstar.com’s earlier report, the said postponement was brought about by US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s request, that “substantive deliverables” need to be “ironed out” before the conference can take place.
The same report also said that the US, as part of its “Asia pivot,” is looking into “expanding its military footprint in the Asia-Pacific region to counterbalance China’s growing military might and wants facilities in the Philippines for surveillance flights and sea patrols to supplement plans to station troops in Australia and dock littoral combat Navy ships in Singapore.”
“Both sides are discussing a bigger US military presence and are favorably inclined toward a deal, the Washington Post reported, but at a PH-US Bilateral Strategic Dialogue in Washington on Jan. 26-27 the Philippine side was unable to come up with details of where, when and how to accommodate the rotating US assets, diplomatic sources said,” Philstar.com further added.
However, Philstar.com also stated that officials from the DFA and Department of Defense “were not on the same page.”
Another deterrent to the said talks was finding a “mutually convenient time” where the principals: Sec. Panetta, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Sec. Del Rosario and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin can all be available to discuss these matters.
With the recent review of US defense strategy (which puts budget cuts into consideration), Panetta said that “the United States would rebalance its global posture and presence to potential trouble spots in the world such as the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East and place an emphasis on special operations forces and a rotational presence.”
“And in all of these cases, obviously we’ll do this in a way that respects the sovereignty of the nations that we will be working with,” he said.
Article 18 of the Philippine Constitution states that foreign military bases, troops or facilities are not allowed on Philippine soil.
After 9/11, 600 US troops (designated as “visiting forces”) were deployed in Mindanao on a rotational basis to assist the Armed Forces of the Philippines in their ongoing battle against Abu Sayyaf and other terrorist groups.
This visiting agreement has become a contentious issue, especially among Filipino nationalists.
In Inquirer.net’s report, Pres. Benigno Aquino III (at Monday’s 110th anniversary celebration of the Bureau of Customs) stated that his administration had been engaging in talks with the United States regarding the enhancement of the Philippines’ defense capabilities. However, he assured that “there are no ongoing negotiations per se, but there are ongoing dialogues” and that there is no need for China to be concerned about these dialogues.
“Should it be a concern for China? No. We stress that what we want to do is to be able to meet our needs,” he said, adding that there is a need to protect the Philippines’ 36,000 nautical miles of coastline.
He further said that this was “nothing of an offensive capability but to enhance our abilities to protect our ecology, to be able to respond to national, natural disasters or even isolated natural disasters.”
When asked about the possibility of amendments being made to the Visiting Forces Agreement, the president assured that the talks would “always have to conform to the Constitution and to all the pertinent laws.”
“We are not envisioning a need for any constitutional change at the present time,” the President added.
According to Philstar’s informed sources, should the outcome of the talks be successful between the two-by-two parties, President Aquino’s visit to Washington in May or June will most likely push through.
The US State Department has also informed the DFA in Manila that Pres. Aquino should be prepared to travel to Washington at short notice, due to Pres. Obama’s hectic campaign schedule.
Washington’s defense analysts opined that the United States and the Philippines “are generally on the same page in security matters but differ in emphasis on substance,” Philstar.com reported.
Perhaps after all that’s been said and done, one can surmise that this is all rhetoric, in the name of diplomatic relations.
But when it comes to the long standing US-PH relations, a smoke and mirrors scenario (especially in terms of the US military presence in the Philippines) has always been a given.
With a partnership built on unavoidable obscurity, President Aquino’s promise of transparency may be involuntarily compromised.
Yet despite these seemingly veiled negotiations, these measures being taken by the Philippine government are imperative, due to our glaring lack of military training and artillery, and the harsh reality which is the Spratlys dispute.
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Weekend Feb 11-14, 2012 Sec A pg. 12)