As the U.S. Pacific Fleet gears up to kick off the biennial Rim of the Pacific exercise this week, ships from around the world are arriving in Pearl Harbor.
The Philippine navy’s BRP Miguel Malvar and the Philippine coast guard’s BRP Gabriela Silang pulled in to the harbor Sunday after a voyage across the Pacific. The Philippine navy has been a regular participant in the exercise, but it’s the first time it has been joined by the Philippine coast guard.
RIMPAC, which is hosted by the Oahu-based Pacific Fleet, is the world’s largest recurring naval warfare exercise. Always a large showcase for the U.S. and its allies, it has taken on new significance amid tensions with China and efforts by Hawaii-based commanders to tighten Pacific alliances.
As the Malvar and Silang pulled into Pearl Harbor, the vessels were greeted by staff from the Philippines’ Honolulu Consulate and members of the local Filipino community.
Philippine Consul General Arman Talbo said in a statement that their participation “is especially meaningful as the Philippines and the United States commemorate the 80th anniversary of diplomatic relations this year … the presence of both vessels at RIMPAC symbolizes the strength of the Philippines-U.S. alliance and the expanding cooperation
between the two countries in defense, security, and maritime affairs.”
The U.S. military has been increasingly investing in the Philippines, with Hawaii-based units like the Army’s 25th Infantry Division and the Marines’ 3rd Littoral Regiment frequently training in the country with
local forces. Philippine forces have also been
training in Hawaii on land and at sea.
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While U.S. troops left permanent bases in the country in the 1990s after nationalist protests led to their eviction, training rotations by American forces and now those from other countries have increased amid tensions with China — along with port calls by warships.
Last year President Donald Trump and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced plans for Subic Bay to become a new arms manufacturing hub.
The Philippines is among the most likely staging areas the U.S. military would seek to use if it were to respond to a Chinese blockade or invasion of Taiwan. During the last two years, troops from the Marines’ 3rd Littoral Regiment brought long-range, anti-ship missile systems to the Philippines’ Batanes islands just south of Taiwan during the annual exercise Balikatan.
The Philippines and China have also been locked in a series of disputes over territorial and navigation rights at sea. Beijing claims the entire South China Sea — where one third of all international trade moves through — as its exclusive sovereign territory, including disputed islands and reefs in an area the Philippines calls the West Philippine Sea and claims as its territory.
In 2016 an international court ruled in favor of Manila, concluding that Beijing’s claims have “no legal basis,” but China dismissed the ruling and has built bases on many of the disputed reefs and islands. Chinese vessels now routinely attack Filipino fishermen, as well as scientists trying to study the environmental impacts of Chinese operations, by charging at and ramming their boats and firing high-pressure water
cannons at them.
China for its part has accused the Philippines of provocation and intruding on its territory and accused the U.S., which conducts frequent “freedom of navigation” movements in the area, of egging on Manila and being the true architect of the conflict.
The Philippine coast guard has been on the front lines of these disputes, clashing with the Chinese coast guard and so called “maritime militias” — ostensible civilian fishing vessels that have at times scouted and staked out territory on behalf of the Chinese military.
In January, the Philippine coast guard’s top officer, Adm. Ronnie Gil Gavan, told a roundtable of reporters at the Honolulu Defense Forum in Waikiki that tension in the South China Sea “is an existential issue not only for the Philippines, but for the world.”
Gavan said that “for us Filipinos, it means our dignity as a country, because it is our territory … and also the source of energy, a source of food, a place for conveyance. But that’s only half of the truth.” He said “the other half of the truth” is that the South China Sea holds the sea lane that “links the east and the west.”
In a report published by the Financial Times over the weekend, Philippine Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro told the outlet that his government is worried China may be preparing to take permanent control of Scarborough Shoal, a disputed atoll that has emerged as one of the most sensitive flashpoints in the
Pacific.
Teodoro said China recently moved a maritime research vessel near Scarborough Shoal. Beijing has previously used research vessels to scope out and build artificial islands in contested waters.
“If they … lied before, they can lie now. It is also probably something to prod us with on the 10th anniversary of the arbitration award, but having gone in there and done ‘research activities,’ why take the chance if you’re not going to do something,” Teodoro told the Financial Times. “You have to assume the worst.”
China’s embassy in the U.S. said Beijing had “indisputable sovereignty” over Huangyan Dao, the Chinese name for Scarborough Shoal, and its adjacent waters and that “it is fully within China’s sovereign rights to carry out activities at Huangyan Dao, and no country has the right to
interfere.”
