Aquino warns of arms race

JALAJALA, Rizal—President Benigno Aquino III has warned Chinese Defense Minister Liang Gianglie that alleged intrusions and encounters in disputed islands in the South China Sea area could lead to a dangerous arms race in the region.

Mr. Aquino said he reiterated the Philippines’ position that countries in the region should focus on regional prosperity to ease the tensions caused by the rival claims of the Philippines, China and several other Southeast Asian countries over the Spratlys group.

The President said the visiting Chinese officials agreed to this proposition and said they would relay the message to the “state leadership.”

Mr. Aquino was talking to reporters here on Tuesday about his meeting last Monday with Liang, who ends a five-day official visit on Wednesday.

The President was visiting Malaking Pulo in this Rizal town to lead the Laguna Lake Development Authority’s annual release of fingerlings into the lake in a continuing effort to revitalize its fishery resources.

Potential for conflict

“I said, ‘If there are incidents such as these, doesn’t it promote an arms race happening within the region? When there’s an arms race, doesn’t the potential for conflict also increase? Who benefits from such a development?’” Mr. Aquino said.

“I told them, ‘We may not have the capabilities now but that might force us to increase our capabilities also,’” he said.

Mr. Aquino said he mentioned to Liang the turnover by the US Coast Guard of an ocean-going Hamilton-class cutter to the Philippine military, which military officials earlier said would be deployed to the areas of the Spratlys that the Philippines claims.

“I believe it will set out to sea by August,” said Mr. Aquino who last week went on board the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, when the latter made a port call in the country.

Some saw the four-day port call of the Carl Vinson as sending a message to China about the Philippines’ strong military partnership with the US with which it has a mutual defense pact.

The Philippines, China, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam and Taiwan have overlapping territorial claims over the Spratlys archipelago, a chain of reputedly oil-rich islets and reefs in the South China Sea.

China has insisted it has sovereignty over the entire island group and has moved to enforce its claim from time to time by flexing its military muscle in the areas claimed by its rivals.

Spratlys intrusion

The most recent was a report last week, on the eve of Liang’s arrival, that Chinese jet fighters had intruded into the country’s airspace in the vicinity of the Reed Bank, part of the Kalayaan group in the Spratlys that the Philippines claims.

Initial reports said the fighters were Chinese but Mr. Aquino said the information remains inconclusive.

“The problem is it was difficult to identify them because of their distance and their altitude,” he said.

Mr. Aquino said he also asked the Department of National Defense if the Chinese had air strips that have the capability of launching fighters to fly in that area.

“So it wasn’t established conclusively if these came from China,” he said.

Mr. Aquino said another incident in March involving the reported harassment by two Chinese vessels of a Philippine energy exploration vessel in the Reed Bank has already been taken up with Chinese Ambassador Liu Jiangchao.

“They are also conscious not to escalate the tension that may happen in the Spratlys,” the President said.

Well handled

Muntinlupa Rep. Rodolfo Biazon on Tuesday said the President’s meeting with Liang effectively eased the tension over the reported intrusion of two suspected Chinese aircraft and should result in the peaceful mechanisms for the resolution of the Spratlys dispute.

Biazon, a former Armed Forces chief, welcomed Liang’s denial that the aircraft did not belong to China.

“I had raised the issue from the very beginning that before we file any protest against China…we must first establish the identity or origin of the aircrafts,” he said.

“It would have been embarrassing for us to have filed the protest even before we had positive proof that the aircrafts were indeed Chinese. It is good that we’ve not gone to that step yet,” he said. With Cynthia D. Balana