MANILA, Philippines — Two ranking United States senators have urged US President Joe Biden to present military, economic and diplomatic options to help the Philippines stave off China's further aggression in the South China Sea.
US senators Jim Risch and Roger Wicker, ranking members of the Senate foreign relations committee and the armed services committee, respectively, wrote to Biden on July 12, seeking urgent action to aid the Philippines in thwarting China in the contested waters.
The letter comes just before the US' top military official arrived in the Philippines this week to finalize an intelligence-sharing deal with its longest treaty ally in the Asia-Pacific region amid China's growing presence there.
In recent years, Chinese militia vessels have steadily expanded their presence in the South China Sea based on Beijing's claim that it owns nearly all of the contested waters, including parts of the West Philippine Sea.
The US has routinely backed the Philippines over its altercations with China and expressed its "ironclad" commitment to defend the country, sparking concerns over how the South China Sea could become the staging ground for a violent showdown between the two powerful nations.
Risch and Wicker asked Biden in their letter to "respond with visible and concrete demonstrations" of the US' support to the Philippines following a violent altercation between Chinese and Filipino vessels on June 19.
“Your administration has repeatedly stated that an attack on Philippine public vessels, aircraft, and armed forces – including its Coast Guard in the South China Sea – would invoke the U.S. mutual defense commitments under Article IV of the 1951 U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT)," the senators wrote.
“Limiting our response to verbal assurances of the applicability of Article IV undermines the credibility and value of these commitments," the senators added.
The senators said that anything short of concrete support to the Philippines "risks our appearing unwilling to honor our bilateral commitments.”
In one of the worst escalation of tensions between China and the Philippines yet, the Chinese coast guard rammed and boarded Filipino navy boats on June 19 and caused injuries to at least eight Filipino crew members in an attempt to foil their resupply mission to BRP Sierra Madre on the Ayungin Shoal.
Officials from the executive department had contradictory, at times flip-flopping, responses on dealing with the altercation.
While both Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin and Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro agreed that the incident was not an "armed attack," which would be grounds for the Philippines to invoke the MDT, Teodoro contradicted Bersamin in saying that the Philippines would now start publicizing the schedule of resupply missions.
Bersamin initially described the incident as "probably a misunderstanding," pointing out that the Chinese crew members only used bladed weapons. However, Teodoro clarified days later that the incident was a "deliberate act by Chinese officialdom."
In December 2023, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. cited the need for a "paradigm shift" with the Philippines' policy of dealing with Chinese aggression, admitting that its diplomatic efforts with China were heading "in a poor direction."
Earlier in 2023, the Philippines announced four new military bases open to US troops under the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, prompting China to rebuke the Philippines for "[endangering] regional peace and stability."