President Benigno Aquino III on Wednesday night chided presidential candidate Grace Poe for what seemed to be the senator’s choice of an arms race as a strategy to resolve the Philippines’ territorial dispute with China in the South China Sea.
In a speech to thousands of voters at Bonifacio Circle in Caloocan City, Mr. Aquino touched on the South China Sea dispute—rarely discussed by the presidential candidates on the stump, where national security and foreign policy take a backseat to poverty, employment, education and corruption.
Mr. Aquino said that one of the country’s problems is the territorial dispute, where the Philippines is up against a “giant nation”—obviously referring to China, the second largest economy in the world and a rising military power.
He warned that without thorough study, acquiring a surface-to-air missile system might provoke a “preemptive strike” by a country feeling threatened by it.
At the presidential debate in Cebu City on March 20, Poe hit the administration for setting aside the surface-to-air missile program of the military in favor of buying weapons and protective gear for the Philippine Army.
Mr. Aquino referred to Poe as “this candidate” in his speech.
“When this candidate talks, you would think [she had] studied all the aspects involving this issue,” the President said in Filipino.
Right timing
He said having a surface-to-air missile system was not necessarily a force projection that would prompt “our big foe” in the South China Sea not to belittle the Philippines, as Poe had suggested.
Mr. Aquino said it was not like the government does not want to have missiles to protect the Philippines’ territory, but it has to determine the timing of adding such a program to the country’s defenses.
“If we put it in the Kalayaan Island Group, would our foe in this dispute not take notice? They might even think their forces are in danger. They might even think of taking the first step and launch what we call a preemptive strike,” Mr. Aquino said.
The President reiterated what he had told Asian journalists earlier on Wednesday: “All I want to emphasize is, it is foolish to engage in an arms race with a giant nation.”
Social services
The President said that if the government funds the accumulation of weapons just to establish superiority, there will be no money left to fund social services such as the conditional cash transfer program, building schools and other infrastructure.
“Moreover, we accumulate these arms that we do not want to use, because once we use them, it means we are at war. But the equipment that the soldiers use in fighting the Abu Sayyaf, the NPAs (New People’s Army) are needed to protect us,” the President said.
“We have to choose between something that we need tomorrow against something that we need today,” he said.
Campaigning in Pampanga province yesterday, Poe said she did not feel slighted by the President’s remarks and that she still respected him.
“Let’s just let him be,” Poe told reporters. “I just said what I think we should do.”
Poe clarified that she was not espousing an arms race, as the missiles were primarily for the country’s defense.
“This administration bought 12 fighter jets, but we never used them to bomb any country,” she said.
The Department of National Defense (DND) said last year that while it had studied the feasibility of the P6.5-billion shore-based missile system (SBMS) under the modernization program of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, it had not called for tenders, much less signed a contract with any supplier.
Instead, senior defense leaders informed President Aquino that there was a more urgent need for soldiers’ individual force protection equipment.
In his speech, President Aquino said it was his “obligation” to protect the Philippines’ territory and thus he embarked on a rules-based, diplomatic approach to fight for the country’s rights against all odds.
He said he constantly brought up the need for a code of conduct for all claimants in the South China Sea dispute at meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
Duterte hit
Mr. Aquino said he was severely criticized for his strategy, with not a few blaming him for creating a problem that he “only inherited” from previous administrations.
The President also did not spare Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s criticism in his speech on Wednesday, as well as in his speech in Sta. Rosa, Laguna province, on Thursday.
Mr. Aquino said that presidents do not “resign” from their jobs if they fail to fulfill their promises to the people.
Duterte said early in the campaign that he would step down if he failed to wipe out corruption and criminality in six months.
“When you are President you don’t quit and hand the job over to your Vice President,” Mr. Aquino said.
As to the plan of Vice President Jejomar Binay to expand the conditional cash transfer program but at the same time cut taxes, the President said he was baffled.
Addressing the women in the crowd, Mr. Aquino said: “When your husbands tell you that next month your budget will be cut but you should buy more [food for the family], how many of you here would say that is impossible?”
“That is what [Binay] is promising us,” the President said.
Binay’s offsetting plan
Binay’s camp said the Vice President had a plan to compensate for potential revenue losses arising from tax cuts.
Joey Salgado, Binay’s communication director, referred the Inquirer to the Vice President’s statement issued on Wednesday criticizing Bureau of Internal Revenue chief Kim Henares for rejecting tax reductions.
In that statement, Binay said potential revenue losses from tax cuts could be “offset by going after smugglers.”
Binay noted that the Aquino administration loses P230 billion a year to the smuggling of agricultural products, P30 billion annually to the smuggling of oil products, and P12 billion yearly to the smuggling of tobacco.
“Potential revenue losses can also be offset by the sale of government assets and the privatization of a number of government-owned and -controlled corporations and continued improvement in tax administration and collection efficiency,” Binay said. With reports from Gil Cabacungan and Christine O. Avendaño