AFP readies P40-B shopping list

By Alexis Romero with Jess Diaz, Tuesday, June 21, 2011

MANILA, Philippines - The military is preparing its shopping list for a P40-billion equipment upgrading program over the next five years, with the Philippine Navy expected to receive a huge chunk of the funds because of high equipment cost.

Brig. Gen. Roy Deveraturda, chief of the Armed Forces Modernization Program Management Office, said in an interview yesterday that the military has identified priority projects for the next five years, which are awaiting approval. He said that in procuring new equipment, it would be considered that the military’s focus is still internal security operations.

Navy chief Vice Admiral Alexander Pama said they are still discussing the proper allocation of funds for each major service but confirmed that the Navy will get a huge share of the funds,

“We cannot deny that some of our equipment are old. We need them to fulfill our mandate as provided by the constitution,” Pama said in an interview with radio station dzRH.

Out of the 53 patrol ships in the Navy’s inventory, only 26 are operational. These patrol ships are aged at an average of 36.4 years old. The larger vessels— like the Mine Sweeper Frigates and patrol craft escorts— are 66 and 67 years old respectively.

Only three of the seven Navy transport vessels—all 15 years old— are operational. The non-operational vessels are 64 years old.

Only four of the 10 Navy auxiliary ships are operational while only 23 of the 32 small crafts—all of which are 21.3 years old— are operational.

On Sunday, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said the government is prepared to implement a P40-billion military modernization project over the next five years starting in 2012 to secure the country’s territory in the West Philippine Sea.

He said the government plans to allot P8 billion annually for the next five years for the modernization program to protect the country’s territorial integrity. The P8 billion annual funding for 2012 to 2016 is higher than the current modernization outlay of P5 billion.

Deveraturda said the higher modernization budget would fasttrack their capability upgrade program.

“It would be a big help (to our modernization efforts). We can assure you that these funds would be used properly. Our records are open and anyone can participate in the procurement process,” he said.

AFP chief Gen Eduardo Oban said the military’s baseline capability should be improved because of the developments in the West Philippine Sea.

The AFP Modernization Act, which took effect in 1995, has mandated the military to modernize its assets in 15 years with a total fund of P331 billion. 16 years later, the military is still suffering from lack of equipment and ageing assets. Of the P331 billion mandated by the law for expenditure, only about P33 billion have been spent. Earlier, President Aquino said more than P11 billion had been allotted for the purchase of modern equipment for the military this year.

\The funding for these assets would come from the P8 billion proceeds from the Malampaya natural gas project in Palawan while P3 billion would come from the modernization outlay.

The AFP expects the implementation of 13 military capability upgrade projects worth more than P5 billion this year.

PhilStar.com

On sending Philippine Navy’s biggest warship to Spratlys

By Amando Doronila

Philippine Daily Inquirer, Monday, June 20, 2011

The Philippines deployed on Friday its biggest warship, the BRP Rajah Humabon, to patrol the West Philippine Sea, also known as the South China Sea, raising its naval profile in the escalating dispute over several islands in the Spratlys group with China and four Asian countries—Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Indonesia.

The deployment of the Philippine Navy’s flagship and oldest warship, of World War II vintage, followed recent incursions by Chinese naval vessels into islands claimed by the Philippines in the Spratlys.

It also came amid the rise of encounters between Philippine and Chinese vessels trying to stop oil exploration by the Philippines and Vietnam in waters claimed by China as part of its territory for the past 2,000 years. Our claims as well as those of Vietnam are anchored on international covenants on the law of the sea.

The dispute is over access to reportedly rich oil and marine resources underneath the disputed islands, as well as control of strategic shipping lanes in the region.

This flare-up of incidents among China, the Philippines and Vietnam over competing territorial claims has fueled a naval show of force and has made the West Philippine Sea the flash point of the dispute in the region.

Live-fire exercises

The Philippine naval deployment came in the face of at least three tension fueling events.

The start last week of the live-fire exercises in the South China Sea by Vietnam, which warned vessels to stay out of the live ammunition drill area off Quang Nam province. The drill followed a verbal clash with China over sovereignty in the area.

The clash also occurred after an angry Chinese reaction to Vietnam’s charge that a Chinese fishing boat rammed cables from an oil exploration vessel inside its exclusive economic zone. China claimed Chinese fishing boats were chased away by Vietnamese ships. Beijing accused Vietnam of “gravely violating” its sovereignty, saying that Vietnam’s actions endangered Chinese sailors’ lives and warned Vietnam to stop all “invasive activities.”

Vietnam said the “premeditated and carefully calculated” action was part of China’s attempts to control disputed waters. Rather than be cowed by China’s warnings, Vietnam responded with holding the live-fire exercises.

Humabon deployment

Showing defiance to Chinese incursions into the Philippine areas in the West Philippine Sea, Manila announced the deployment of the Humabon on the eve of annual joint exercises of Philippine and US forces under their mutual defense treaty.

Philippine defense officials believe that the exercises would act as a signal to China that the United States would come to the aid of the Philippines if an armed conflict with China breaks out over the Spratlys.

Arms shopping

Following the increasing encounters with Chinese vessels intruding into territories it has made claims and interfering in explorations for resources in the West Philippine Sea, Manila started an arms shopping in the United States for weapons to build up its naval facilities, including a Hamilton-class vessel to patrol its territory.

The Philippines has a relatively weak Navy to prevent sneak construction on its claimed territories. Despite claims and pledges by China at the recent Asian security summit in Singapore to pursue a peaceful solution of territorial disputes, rival claimants are not reassured.

Rules-based deals

Chinese Defense Minister Lian Guanglie told the worried Asians at the summit, “China is committed to maintaining peace and stability in the South China Sea. At present, the general situation in the South China Sea remains stable,” adding that freedom of navigation had never been impeded.

Filipino officials have claimed that the Philippines is pursuing diplomatic means, or “rules-based” arrangements, in concert with its Asean allies, but Manila does not trust China’s soothing pledges. The Philippines is suspicious and nervous over China’s hegemonic ambitions in the region in the light of the rise of Beijing’s economic power.

These apprehensions are expressed in some ways by the Philippines decision to build up its naval muscle and to deploy the Humabon as a show of force of its determination not to be bullied by Chinese threats.

In Manila on Friday, President Aquino expressed his strongest statement yet against Chinese incursions into territories claimed by the Philippines. He said in an interview with The Associated Press that in the deployment of Humabon, the Philippines reserved the right to explore its waters, despite Chinese rival claims.

No pushover

“We will not be pushed around because we are a tiny state compared with others,” Mr. Aquino said. “We think we have very solid grounds to say ‘do not intrude into our territory’ and that it is not a source of dispute or should not be a source of dispute,” the President said.

“We will continue with dialogues, but I think for our internal affairs, we don’t have to ask anybody else’s permission.”

He added, “We are not going to escalate the tensions here, but we do have to protect our rights.”

Cmdr. Celestino Abalayan, captain of the Humabon, explained his mission. “Our objectives are to establish naval presence in the area and to test the readiness of our vessel in terms of territorial defense operations. We are conducting defensive naval patrol to safeguard the waters of the country.”

All right, we have told the Chinese that we don’t want to be bullied by them. With all this tough talk, Abalayan has a big job.

He must be sure that the guns of Humabon don’t jam—when they are needed to sink Chinese ships.

newsinfo.inquirer.net

Rajah Humabon to stay within Philippine borders

By AFP

Manila Times, Monday, June 20,2011

The chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines on Sunday assured that the country’s naval flagship would not go beyond the country’s 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone, or EEZ, as it prepares to deploy near disputed islands and surrounding waters in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).

Despite apparent muscle-flexing by claimant-countries to the contested areas, Gen. Eduardo Oban Jr. said that he remained optimistic that the territorial dispute would be solved peacefully and avoid a potential armed confrontation.

“We hope it will not reach that point,” Oban told reporters when asked if sending the Philippine Navy flagship Rajah Humabon to the West Philippine Sea could stoke clashes.

He said that the flagship would be confined to its maritime boundaries and would not stray into international waters.

“I am optimistic that whatever conflicts may arise there will be settled peacefully and diplomatically, although what I am saying is that we will have to [also] enforce maritime laws within our 200-nautical mile [exclusive economic] zone,” Oban added.

Manila said that it would deploy the Rajah Humabon to the West Philippine Sea on Friday, a day after China announced that one of its maritime patrol vessels was also scheduled to pass through the area.

Both countries, as well as Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam have competing claims to potentially resource-rich areas in the disputed territories and surrounding waters, particularly Spratly Islands.

China claims the entire South China Sea as its historical fishing grounds, but the Philippines argues that the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea states that a country has exclusive economic rights over waters that fall within 200 nautical miles of its continental shelf.

The Philippines’ zone overlaps in some places with those of claims by the other claimants to the Spratlys.

Commissioned in the Philippine Navy in 1980, the Rajah Humabon was a former US Navy frigate that served during World War II and is one of the world’s oldest warships.

Tensions in the long-running dispute over the area flared in recent months on allegations by the Philippines and Vietnam that China has become increasingly aggressive in staking its territorial claims.

The Philippines accused China this month of sending naval vessels to intimidate rival claimants around the Spratly Islands, as well as of installing buoys and posts in nearby areas.

Foreign Minister Albert del Rosario met with his counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) also on Sunday and called on them to have a common stand against China over the overlapping claims.

Asean groups the Philippines, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar., Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Hanoi’s cause was pushed further forward also on Sunday by up to 100 Vietnamese who rallied outside the Chinese Embassy in the Vietnamese capital for the third weekend in a row over the escalating maritime row with Beijing in the West Philippine Sea.

The group sang patriotic songs, chanted and carried signs such as “China stop violating the territorial waters of Vietnam,” referring to the dispute over the sovereignty of two archipelagos—Paracel and Spratlys—in the South China Sea.

“The East Sea is not the village pond of China. I come here to show my patriotism,” said one protester, who asked not to be named, using the Vietnamese name for the sea.

Demonstrations are not common in authoritarian Vietnam, where small land-rights rallies are tolerated but advocates of other political causes risk arrest, yet anti-China sentiment recently brought people to the streets.

Police at Sunday’s rally, who outnumbered the crowd, noted their patriotism but told them through loudhailers, “Your gathering here may complicate the situation, influencing diplomatic relations between the two countries.”

The United States and Vietnam also on Friday jointly called for freedom of navigation and rejected the use of force in the sea.

After talks in Washington, the former war foes said that “the maintenance of peace, stability, safety and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea is in the common interests of the international community.”

manilatimes.net

US, Asean states stage naval drill

By Gilbert P. Felongco, Monday, June 20, 2011

Manila: The US Navy is conducting a naval exercise with its forces from the five member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) amid rising tensions in the troubled South China Sea.

Dubbed the Southeast Asia Cooperation and Training (Seacat) 2011, the drills were launched last Tuesday in the Malacca Strait, Sulu Sea and Celebes Sea and will run until Friday.

Lieutenant Colonel Omar Tonsay of the Philippine Navy public affairs office said the naval forces of the five Southeat Asian allies and the US Navy will participate in a scenario-driven fleet training exercise against terrorism, transnational crimes and other maritime threats.

The drills will focus on real-time information exchange, coordinated surveillance operations, tracking, and eventual conduct of visit, board, search and seizure operation, he said.

Information exchange

The Malacca Strait, Sulu Sea and Celebes Sea are known to be areas of piracy and there have been increasing incidents in recent months.

Likewise security experts point to the same spots as likely targets of terrorist strikes due to the importance of these areas. The Strait of Malacca is a vital artery for world sea trade.

Philippine Navy Captain Sebastian Pan said that the activities in the exercise will involve "surface, air, and special operations units in the conduct of surveillance, tracking, and boarding of ... from the different participating navies within their respective maritime territories.

"Three ships from the naval forces of the Philippine Navy will participate in this year's exercise.

"As practised in the yearly Seacat, several ships from each participating Southeast Asian navy will join the training" with a US Navy ship designated as the Contact of Interest for the participating Southeast Asian navies."

Territorial claims

According to Tonsay, the naval exercise has nothing to do with the ongoing tension between China and several Southeast Asian countries over maritime territorial claims.

Manila was recently involved in a heated exchange of words with Beijing over Philippine moves to allow foreign companies to conduct oil and natural gas exploration in the Recto Bank, which is located some 85 nautical miles from the Philippines' Palawan.

Likewise, Vietnam is involved in a similar row with China over oil and natural gas exploratory operations.

China had declared that it has exclusive rights over mineral and marine resources in the South China Sea.

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