6,800 US and Filipino Forces Joined the War Game near Spratlys – France Fighter jets spotted?

Thousands of US soldiers will begin nearly two weeks of war games in the Philippines on Monday April 16, 2012 as the two nations look to strengthen their military alliance amid concerns over China's rising power.

The Balikatan (Shoulder-to-shoulder) exercises are an annual event but this year are expected to attract a greater focus with some of the drills set to be held close to sensitive Wet Philippines (South China) Sea waters claimed by the Chinese.

The Philippines insists the exercises, involving 6,800or 4,500 US personnel and 2,300 Filipino troops, should not be seen by China as a provocation.

This year they are taking place off Palawan, near parts of the South China Sea both Manila and Beijing claim.

 "Our aim is not against any country, our aim is to protect maritime security and to protect the interests of our country," Major Emmanuel Garcia, Philippine military spokesman for Balikatan.

Meanwhile Philippine and Chinese vessels remain at the Scarborough Shoal, a week after the deadlock began.

The Philippines said its warship found eight Chinese fishing vessels at the shoal - which both sides claim - when it was patrolling the area on 8 April.

When navy personnel boarded the Chinese fishing vessels on Tuesday they found a large amount of illegally-caught fish and coral, it said.

Two Chinese surveillance ships then arrived in the area, preventing the navy from making arrests.

Nevertheless, Garcia confirmed US and Philippine ships will stage drills in waters facing the South China Sea, while Filipino leaders have repeatedly said that China is one of the country's main "maritime security" concerns.

China claims all of the West Philippines (South China) Sea as a historic right, even waters close to the coasts of the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries.

The competing claims to the strategically vital waters have long made the area one of Asia's potential flashpoints for military conflict.

The Philippines has complained over the past two years that China has become increasingly aggressive in staking its claim to the waters, accusing the Chinese of acts such as firing warning shots at Filipino fishermen.

Tensions spiked again this month when Philippine and Chinese ships became locked in a standoff at a tiny set of islets called Scarborough Shoal or also called Panatag Shoal by the Philippines in the West Philippines (South China) Sea.

After a week, both sides have refused to back down and are still keeping civilian vessels at the shoal, 230 kilometers (140 miles) west of the Philippines' main island of Luzon, in an effort to assert sovereignty and around 900 miles from Hong Kong' Chinas closest independent province.

Facing the perceived growing threat from China, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III last year called for closer military ties with the United States.

The United States was the colonial ruler of the Philippines in the first half of the 20th Century and maintained military bases until the early 1990s, but was forced to end its permanent presence amid anti-US sentiment.

Aquino's appeal last year was welcomed in the United States, which has been seeking to rebuild its presence across the Asia Pacific, partly to counter the growing political, economic and military might of China.

Aquino told AFP last month that, although there would be no return to permanent US bases in the Philippines, he welcomed a greater American military presence through more joint exercises such as Balikatan.

In this context, Balikatan will hold extra significance in terms of sending a message to China, according to John Blaxland, a regional security and political expert from the Australian National University.

"It's a subtle message affirming for the Philippines that the US is serious about playing in Asia and will lend assistance to those in need," Blaxland told AFP.

The Balikatan exercises, which run from April 16, 2012 Monday until April 27, are scheduled to be held on Luzon as well as Palawan, a narrow island that forms the country's western-most landmass.

The Philippines and the United States have emphasized that Balikatan is not focused solely on conflict, with troops also set to conduct humanitarian and disaster-relief exercises.

Balikatan opening in manila; In a speech at the opening ceremony for the exercises in Manila, Philippines' armed forces chief Jessie Dellosa did not specifically mention China but said the war games highlighted strong US support for its weaker ally.

"Given the international situation we are in, I say that this exercise, in coordination with all those we had in the past, (is) timely and mutually beneficial," Dellosa said.

"The conduct of this annual event reflects the aspirations to further relations with our strategic ally, a commitment that has to be nurtured especially in the context of the evolving challenges in the region." 

France Fighter jets – spotted

While the deadlock between the Philippines and China continues in the Scarborough Shoal, it has been reported that China intensity the conflict in the Philippines territory and sending another navy patrol and warplane flying over the Philippines ships and harassing the Filipino fishermen and French national's-Scientist conducting research in the area with Philippine government approval.

After the incidents of China's harassment to the French Scientists, it has been reported by civilians from the southern Philippines that 2 France Fighter jets has been spotted many times flying so close in the Southern Philippines. This report is not yet confirmed by the Philippines authority as initially reported by the civilians.

China continued its effort for expansionism that starts hurting the international community in their aggression.

In 2011, China spend all efforts to buy all antique map around the world that named the Philippines islands in different name and replace it with new name based on China's locally coined name to assert its claim in the Philippines territory.

Inspite of their effort, the Philippines are not be bothered but relied the United Nations to intervene the China's aggression and insisted that the disputed triggered by china in invading the Philippines territory must be resolve by the UNCLOS.

United Nations has been silent and never reacts of the recent disputes in the Seas of the South East Asia and not even shows its strength to implement the United Nations convention on laws of Seas.

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French Scientists harassed by Chinese Patrol in Panatag Shoal – Philippines Territory

A week long standoff between the Philippines and China in the Philippines territory of the Panatag / Scarborough Shoal continue to escalate as China tighten their naval presence and invasion in the Philippines territory that hit not just Filipinos but also France Nationals-Scientist  who are conducting a research in the area with approval from the Philippine government.

Filipino Nationalism continues to rise and calling China as "bastos" or immodest, unfair, un-respectful and arrogant of their power.

China recently detained Vietnamese fishermen who seeks for shelter during the storm in the Paracel Islands's Viet Nam's 200 nautical Miles Exclusive Economic Zone and call Vietnam to stop poaching in the territory which is under control by china's government.

The poaching of Chinese fishermen is a strategy to challenge the Philippine capability to fight with China's might resulting to a continued standoff in the Panatag Scarborough Shoal west of Zambales Province Philippines.

Even small, even weak, and even poorly equipped, Philippines flex its might to defend its territory will calling the united front from the ASEAN countries to create one voice to end the standoff.

It wasn't mere fish poaching that sparked the near clash between armed Chinese and Philippine ships in Scarborough Shoal last week. Two Chinese maritime surveillance vessels popped up on scene to shield the poaching lancha just as a Philippine Navy cutter was accosting them. This showed they were just in the vicinity of the shoal, trespassing Philippine waters like their fish-rustling compatriots. A third Chinese fisheries enforcement craft arrived to reinforce the two. It was not bent on enforcing international bans on harvesting live shark, giant clams, and corals found on the poaching boats. Then, while diplomatic talks were ongoing to diffuse the tension, one of the Chinese ships harassed and a patrol plane buzzed a Filipino research craft with French scientists onboard.

China's aim is apparent. Its patrols were acting as advance scouts for its People's Liberation Army-Navy. Under pretext of innocent fishing, China is out to grab Scarborough Shoal, just like it did to Mischief Reef in 1995.

Manila cannot ignore the disquieting pattern. Scarborough Shoal and Mischief Reef are not part of the Spratly Islands disputed by the two countries. Both lie within the Philippines' 200- nautical miles exclusive economic zone, far beyond China's, under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

For decades Mischief had been a rest stop of Filipino fishing craft from Malabon-Navotas and Zamboanga. It is 130 miles off Palawan, and more than 900 miles from China's closest island-province of Hainan. Allowed in the spirit of amity, Chinese fishers occasionally sought shelter there. During the monsoons of 1994, when Philippine naval patrols were off, China put up several stilt huts. Claiming these were innocent storm shelters for fishermen of both sides, China ignored Manila's protests. The following year China erected concrete structures, followed by communications towers, satellite dishes, helipads, and cannons. From then on, Philippine military and civilian craft were forbidden from approaching.

Soon after grabbing Mischief, China dropped buoys around Sabina Shoal, closer to Palawan, (70 miles). The Philippines confiscated these.

China then trained its eyes on Scarborough, 120 miles west of Luzon, but nearly 800 miles from Hong Kong, China's closest point. Recorded in the Spanish times as Masinloc Baja, after the jurisdictional Zambales town, Scarborough too is a fishermen's rest stop. Secured by warships, Chinese sailors attempted to build bunkhouses and plant markers around the 15,000-hectare lagoon. The Philippines beached a gunboat on the sandbar to signal readiness for protracted siege. The squatters from across the South China Sea retreated.

On routine patrol last Holy Week 2012 the Philippine Navy flagship BRP Gregorio del Pilar spotted eight Hainan-type launches inside the lagoon. Boarding from motorized rubber boats, Filipino Seals videoed the poached contraband. Then came three Chinese interloping ships from its bureaus of maritime surveillance and fisheries enforcement. With three other "civilian" agencies — coast guard, Customs, and maritime safety — the vessels of the "five dragons stirring up the seas" are well armed. Its coast guard alone has 86 patrol craft, all equipped with medium-range anti-ship cruise missiles.

The grey Philippine naval vessel may have looked inapt confronting white Chinese civil government craft, but the latter were as ready for sea battle. Beijing cried that the fishing craft had merely sought shelter from a storm in the shoal. Smartly Manila withdrew the del Pilar from the standoff to keep a "grey to grey, white to white" stance. Dispatched to the area was the Philippine Coast Guard's BRP Pampanga to treat the poaching as a police matter. Still, in light of China's past and continuing aggressions, Manila should keep the Navy on standby against any overt Chinese effort to occupy Scarborough. In recent months, China has harassed seismic research and fishing craft in the oil-rich Reed Bank 80 miles off Palawan. It planted markers in nearby Boxall Reef, Jackson Atoll, and again Sabina Shoal.

China claims ownership of Scarborough, Mischief, Sabina, Reed, Boxall, and Jackson by virtue of having Chinese names in unverified "ancient maps." But there are also Filipino names respectively for the six areas explored by the British Admiralty in the 1700s-1800s. These are Panatag Shoal, Panganiban Reef, Escoda Shoal, Recto Bank, Rajah Soliman Reef, and Quirino Atoll. Seismological maps of the University of London show these — and the Spratlys — to be within the Philippine continental shelf.

In 2011, China spend all effort to buy all antique map around the world that named the Philippines islands in different name as China's locally coined name to assert its claim in the Philippines territory.

Inspite of their effort, the Philippines are not be bothered but relied the United Nations to intervene the China's aggression and insisted that the disputed triggered by china in invading the Philippines territory must be resolve by the UNCLOS.

United Nations has been silent and never reacts of the recent disputes in the Seas of the South East Asia and not even shows its strength to implement the United Nations convention on laws of Seas.

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China make the 5th invasion to the Philippines - Scarborough Shoal

China's naval intrusion to the Philippine territory since Saturday April 7, 2012 in the Scarborough Shoal / or also called Panatag Shoal is a follow-up to its recent forays into Philippine western territorial waters. It is the fifth times where China Intruded the Philippine Territory since June 2011.

China has confronted Philippine military and civilian vessels in the following places:

1. Recto Bank
2. Rajah Soliman Reef
3. Quirino Atoll
4. Escoda Shoal.
5. The recent is the Panatag Shoal / Scarborough Shoal.

All four lie a few dozen kilometers off Palawan but 2,000 km from China's nearest island-province of Hainan; Scarborough is 220 km off Zambales but more than 800 km from Hong Kong. China's pretext of protecting its fishermen and seismic surveyors is not unique. As in the last two decades, it trespasses into Philippine offshore oilfields and abets fish poaching to prop up a shaky counterclaim over the West Philippine (South China) Sea.

China's flouting of international and Philippine fisheries laws triggered the Scarborough standoff. Eight Chinese craft were spotted Sunday hauling in endangered shark, giant clams, and corals in the 150-sq-km lagoon called Baja Masinloc, long a rest stop of Luzon fishermen. As the Philippine naval patrol BRP Gregorio del Pilar approached, two Chinese marine surveillance ships cut its path to shield the poachers. Beijing was quick to accuse Manila of harassing Chinese fishers who supposedly had only sought shelter from a storm.

The Philippine response was mainly diplomatic. President Noynoy Aquino and Foreign Sec. Albert del Rosario quickly but firmly reminded the Chinese ambassador of the two countries' pact to shun violence in the troubled seas. The Navy has pulled out to let its Coast Guard civilian counterpart handle things as a police matter. A military skirmish would be futile. Though the Navy's fastest vessel, the del Pilar is a refurbished five-decade-old US coast guard cutter. The handful of other Philippine warships and planes are newer but lightly armed. On the other hand, China seems to treat tact as its debility. Both sides are signatories to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which defines coastal and archipelagic countries' 200-mile exclusive economic zones. China's counterclaim to the long-recognized western Philippine shoals, reefs, atolls, and banks is based solely on unverified "ancient maps."

In contrast to Manila's stance, China is itching to play the military card. Its naval buildup has been worrying not only the Philippines but other ASEAN members as well, and Japan, South Korea, India, Australia, and America. China's annual defense spending has risen from $30 billion in 2000 to $120 billion in 2010, says the SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute).

Since Beijing habitually deflates by half its true naval and arms acquisitions, reports The Economist, the true budget for 2012 including research and development could well run up to $160 billion. It's still less than a fourth of America's (declining) defense buys, so Chinese leaders make a show of shuddering at comments of aspiring to become a military "near peer." But while invoking China's "peaceful rise," they employ war footing with Vietnam, South Korea, and Japan— and the Philippines — when it comes to territorial counterclaims in the North, East and South China Seas.

Having 75 principal surface warships and some 50 diesel electric submarines emboldens China. Defense magazine's latest issue enumerated the arsenal of China's People's Liberation Army-Navy: 26 destroyers, 53 frigates, 26 tank-landing vessels, 49 attack submarines, and five nuclear submarines. Not counting the fighting craft from five civilian agencies (coast guard, maritime surveillance, fisheries enforcement, etc.) the PLAN also has 86 coastal patrol craft. All are armed with anti-ship medium-range cruise missiles.

China's avoidance of diplomacy also has to do with its hazy chain of command. While its government funds most of its operations, supplies and personnel, the People's Liberation Army does not report to the defense ministry. Its orders come instead from the Communist Party's Military Commission, headed by the Party chairman, also the President. By contrast, the foreign office is low in the Politburo totem pole. Perhaps it proceeds from Mao Zedong's tenets. "Political power grows out of the barrel of the gun," the founder of communist China had pounded. "Without the Army, the Party is nothing."

Neighbors doubt China's assurances that, like them, it wants peaceful resolution of its encroachments. Beijing's bigwigs talk from both sides of the mouth. The Party's English-language paper, Global Times, betrays the doublespeak. As the defense minister mentioned "peace" 26 times in a speech before East Asian leaders last October, it editorialized: "If these countries don't want to change their ways with China, they will need to prepare for the sounds of cannons. We need to be ready for that, as it may be the only way for the disputes in the sea to be resolved."

Beijing may disavow the communist hawks' opinions as unofficial. But there can be no doubt about the official line, as stated by the PLA's doctrinal "Science of Military Strategy," published in 2005. The Economist quotes it: "Although active defense is the essential feature of China's military strategy, if an enemy offends our national interests it means that the enemy has already fired the first shot. In which case, the PLA's mission is to do all we can to dominate the enemy by striking first."

In the news is not only the Philippine territorial row with China, but also ex-President Gloria Arroyo's arraignment for the NBN-ZTE scam. To better understand these and other events, readers may wish to read Exposés: Investigative Reporting for Clean Government. This selective compilation of my Gotcha columns also features, among others, the Diwalwal-ZTE scam, the near cession of territory to Moro separatists, and the NAIA-3 construction anomalies. Early copies available at National Bookstore and Powerbooks.

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