Philippines seeks US help to protect troops in disputed sea

MANILA: The Philippine defense chief said he asked the visiting US Pacific commander on Wednesday to help protect the transport of Filipino troops and supplies to Philippine-occupied reefs in the disputed South China Sea by deploying American patrol planes to discourage Chinese moves to block the resupply missions. The Philippines has protested past attempts by Chinese coast guard ships to block smaller boats transporting military personnel, food and other supplies to a Filipino military ship outpost at disputed Second Thomas Shoal, which is also claimed and guarded by Chinese coast guard ships. The tense standoff at the shoal has lasted two years. Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said the commander, Adm. Harry Harris Jr., assured him of US readiness to provide assistance, adding that the US military has flown an aircraft at least once when a Philippine boat delivered supplies last year to Filipino marines marooned on the rusty naval ship that ran aground years ago at the disputed shoal. AP journalists witnessing a resupply mission last year saw a US military plane hovering above a Filipino supply boat, which a Chinese coast guard ship tried but failed to block. Such US military flights deter Chinese moves, Gazmin said, adding that Philippine resupply boats have been harassed less by Chinese coast guard ships after the deployment of the US patrol plane. “If there are Americans flying around there, we won’t be troubled,” Gazmin said in an interview. “We need to be helped in our resupply missions. The best way they could assist is through their presence.” Second Thomas Shoal, which is called Ayungin by Filipinos and Ren’ai by Chinese, and the nearby Spratly Islands lie about 190 km from the western Philippine province of Palawan, and about more than 1,000 km from southern China. China’s Foreign Ministry says Beijing has “indisputable sovereignty” over the shoal. The Philippine Navy deliberately ran one of its ships aground at the shoal in 1999, fearing that Chinese forces would occupy it after taking control of nearby Mischief Reef four years earlier. A Chinese frigate and maritime surveillance ships arrived in 2013 and the uneasy standoff remains unresolved. The underfunded Philippine military has turned to the US, a longtime treaty ally, to acquire refurbished warships and planes as the territorial rifts intensified in recent years. Gazmin said Washington has agreed to provide two C-130 cargo planes previously used by the US Marines. The aircraft may be delivered to the Philippine air force next year. Harris indicated the US may be able to provide a third US Coast Guard cutter in addition to two earlier ones, which have become the largest frigates in the Philippine Navy. The US has a policy of not taking sides in the territorial disputes but has declared it has a national interest in ensuring freedom of navigation and overflights in the South China Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. The long-seething territorial rifts involving China, the Philippines and four other governments have sparked fears of those freedoms being hampered in waters where a bulk of the world’s oil and trade passes.