US motive in bases revival not the Spratlys

Both China and the United States recently conducted war games in the Spratlys, showing off how loud they could roar. But the exercises were insignificant psywar tactics that have now been forgotten. Because America has no territorial stake in the Spratlys, the Philippines had to be part of the US naval exercise. After all, we are the landowner. And yet, if we consider size, not ownership, where there are two giants and we are ants, we are mere fence sitters. In truth, the United States is using the Philippines as a pawn for a larger geopolitical plan under President Barack Obama’s “pivot to Asia” policy.

The Philippine perspective tends to blow up the issue concerning the Spratlys because the island chain is so near, and it is where we have been so humiliated by China’s bully tactics. But if we forget that, and study the American perspective, we will note that the picture dramatically changes.

In the American perspective, the Spratlys are hardly the main issue. Oil exploration is an American consideration but it is not a priority. The United States has deeper concerns reflected in the “pivot to Asia” policy. Whereas China is going for trade and economic expansion in Asia-Pacific, the United States has ironically given more priority to military initiatives—a dangerous move for us as a pawn between two giants. “Pivot to Asia” means 60 percent of US military resources go to the region, according to Leon Panetta, a former US defense secretary. It is a military, not economic, endeavor. The first thing that Obama did was to reinforce the US base in Australia, the untouchable fortress in the deep south. “Pivot to Asia” was justified by the decline of the European Union. Asia is the new center of US concern. The Americans want to make it appear to us that we need them for the Spratlys. But their true motive is different.

China suspects “pivot to Asia” as a “containment” policy. The next step is to secure jump-off points nearer the Korean peninsula and the Chinese mainland. The US Navy recently sent to Singapore a littoral combat ship (LCS), the USS Freedom, a state-of-the-art warship hot from the research lab. The deadly LCS was “envisioned to be a networked, agile, stealthy surface combatant capable of defeating anti-access and asymmetric threats.” Its main mission is surface and submarine warfare and it carries a complex network of sensors as well as an array of Mk torpedoes and Hellfire missiles. (See https://thediplomat.com/2013/05/05/americas-pivot-to-asia-a-report-card/.)

The LCS is described as an extremely mobile virtual mini-carrier that can hold two Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk helicopters, with crooked tails to easily fit into the rear mini-landing deck. It can virtually replace the slower, bigger destroyers and cruisers. It is capable of quick, deep penetration of the Chinese mainland to take out “anti-access” missile launchers. Indeed, the LCS can easily be a catalyst to war.

The proposed revival of former US bases in the Philippines is critical to US military presence in the entire Asia Pacific because the country is strategically a major refueling and logistics center, a place to dock stealth nuclear submarines and an LCS, and, in case of war, a staging point for transporting casualties to the United States, just like during the Vietnam War days. It is not true that, as the United States claims, vital commercial sea lanes will be compromised by China’s occupation of the Spratlys. The proposed US bases here are for a future confrontation with China.

It is entirely possible, therefore, for China and North Korea to launch a preemptive strike on Subic if there are nuclear submarines or an LCS mini-carrier there, and on Clark Field, if it is revived for the use of heavy long-range bombers. We are actually not inviting the United States to help us in our territorial row with China over parts of the Spratlys; we are inviting a preemptive strike on major population centers surrounding Subic and Clark. US presence does not bring stability, but undermines it, courtesy of the pro-Pentagon view of Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin.

At the time Gazmin made an announcement about the possibility of reviving the US bases, there was a crisis situation in North Korea. He has made regular trips to and from Washington in the last few months to forward the message of the Pentagon to us about the “urgency” of reviving the former US bases for the Spratlys. But US concern is more for North Korea and China.

Now we can understand the urgency for China to bridge the weapons gap. It was openly accused by the United States last month of hacking into US advance weapons computer files, which included the deadly LCS. China is preparing for a US initiative.

The PH-US Visiting Forces Agreement may be amended by President Aquino under the pretext of emergency powers, whose legal definition is vague and subjective. In truth, the President can use emergency powers on almost any pretext, as Ferdinand Marcos did for martial law.

Beyond the VFA, the 1987 Constitution does not explicitly ban US bases here. The revival of the former US bases, however, requires congressional approval, which is the last card against America’s dangerous presence here.

Bernie Lopez ([email protected]) has been writing political commentaries for the last 20 years. He is also a radio-TV broadcaster.