Honasan not impressed with US pledge of help

Sen. Gregorio Honasan II is unimpressed with the US state department’s promise to help arm the Philippines amid growing tension over the Spratly Islands.

“We toss the ball back to them: How? And without sounding too materialistic, how much is the hardware, through which channels and more importantly, when?” he said in a radio interview on Sunday. “You know talk is cheap.”

Honasan, vice chair of the Senate defense committee, rued that despite the long history of alliance between the two countries dating back to World War II, the Philippines was receiving only a pittance in military aid from the United States.

Compared with Pakistan’s $50-billion aid, the Philippines was getting $20 million a year from its longtime ally in the Pacific, he said.

“If we compare ourselves with other countries that have no Visiting Forces Agreement with the US, I feel like—I may be wrong—we’re being shortchanged,” he said.

Hillary’s pledge

The US state department on Thursday said it was prepared to provide hardware to modernize the Philippine military amid concerns by the Philippines and Vietnam over aggressive incursions by China into the potentially oil-rich Spratlys.

“We are determined and committed to supporting the defense of the Philippines,” US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday said in a joint news conference with visiting Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario in Washington.

Del Rosario said the Philippines hoped to lease equipment to upgrade its aged fleet.

Beyond the hardware, the Philippine government should stick with diplomacy, by banding together with member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, to bring the issue to the fore, Honasan said.

“If the Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) is one on this, add to that the Asean+3 (China, Japan and South Korea), China might listen to us,” he said.

US Senate resolution

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Sunday said that during his Washington visit, Del Rosario expressed appreciation of a resolution in the US Senate condemning the use of force in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).

In a statement, the DFA said Del Rosario “commended” Virginia Sen. Jim Webb for introducing with Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe the resolution which seeks “a peaceful and multilateral resolution to maritime territorial disputes in Southeast Asia.”

Webb, according to the DFA, expressed confidence that the resolution has a “good chance” of clearing the US Senate this week.

Webb, the chair of the subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs was also quoted as saying that the bill’s passage “sends a good signal on the US Senate’s position on the territorial conflict in the region.”

Del Rosario reiterated during his meeting with Webb on Friday the importance of maritime security and freedom of navigation in the West Philippine Sea and added that this could be achieved through a rules-based mechanism and adherence to the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea, the DFA said. With a report from Jerome C. Aning