US military commander, Phl execs tackle sea row

MANILA, Philippines - Top defense and military officials on Friday tackled behind closed door the mounting tension in the West Philippine Sea with US top military commander.

Also discussed during the meeting between visiting US Navy Admiral Samuel Locklear III, commander of the US Pacific Command (USPACOM), and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Emmanuel Bautista and Philippine Navy chief Vice Admiral Jose Luis Alano, is the defense and military relations of the Philippines and America.

The meeting was held at the national defense headquarters of the AFP at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.

“The Admiral discussed how the US could contribute in enhancing the capability of the AFP in meeting emerging security challenges to include maritime security,” defense spokesperson Anne Marie Sta. Ana said in a press statement.

Sta. Ana added that with the emerging traditional and non-traditional security challenges in the Asia-Pacifc rRegion, both sides also reaffirmed the importance of their bilateral relations as well as promoting the multilaterals.

One of the emerging security challenges in the region is China’s deployment of its warships and surveillance vessels to press its maritime claim in the West Philippine Sea, particularly at Ayungin Shoal and Panganiban Reef, now China's naval outpost near Palawan.

Both areas are outside of the contested Spratly archipelago, where China has also built a three-storey military structure at its occupied Subi Reef close to the Philippines' Pag-Asa Island.

The presence of Chinese ships near Ayungin Shoal is causing inconvenience to Filipino troops on forward deployment in the area aboard a grounded Philippine Navy (PN) Landing Tank Ship, BRP Sierra Madre.

Modalities of increased rotational presence of the US troops in the Asia-Pacific and in the Philippines were also discussed during the meeting, to include high-value and high-impact exercises, Sta. Ana said.

“Admiral Locklear also gave assurance that in spite of the ongoing crisis in the Middle East, the US remains committed to its policy of rebalancing to Asia, emphasizing that the rebalance includes, political, economic and military aspects,” Sta. Ana added.

Locklear also reiterated before Gazmin, Bautista and Alano that while the US does not take sides on the West Philippine Sea issue, the US remains concerned about developments in the area and emphasized that they are opposed to unilateral actions that will change the status quo.

Bautista, in an ambushed interview, downplayed their meeting with Locklear as “just a getting-to-know each other" event. But when pressed if the South China Sea issue was discussed, he answered in the affirmative by simply raising both his eyebrows.

Since his assumption as USPACOM commander last year, almost the time when China started flexing its muscle in claiming almost 80 percent of the entire South China Sea, Locklear has been in the country thrice.