Looking to boost interoperability and highlight their commitment to the global rules-based order, the U.S., Australia, Japan and the Philippines conducted a joint naval patrol within Manila's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) last week. It was the kind of move that is becoming routine.
But some are calling on Manila to do more.
To fully capitalize on growing international support amid intensifying maritime rows with Beijing, a growing number of Philippine officials and experts are calling on Manila to go a step further and consider joint coast guard and naval patrols near Chinese government vessels operating in disputed waters — a move the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has shied away from to avoid further escalating tensions.
“What applies to the military in terms of maritime cooperative activities, could also apply to the coast guards should our partners be interested,” Commodore Jay Tarriela, the Philippine Coast Guard’s (PCG) spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea (WPS), Manila’s designation for the South China Sea waters within the country’s EEZ, told The Japan Times.
“If the U.S., Japan, Australia or others were also interested in such joint activities, then I think the PCG would eventually also join,” Tarriela said in a recent interview in Manila.
Such a move, he said, would help ensure that the Philippines has a credible deterrence and defense posture in the area, especially in hot spots where Chinese government vessels often outnumber the Philippines’ 4 to 1.
Greater cooperation, whether between militaries, coast guards or diplomats, Tarriela said, is something “worth embracing as we aim to make like-minded states understand that the standoff in the West Philippine Sea is not just about preserving the Philippines’ territorial integrity, but about upholding international law.”
From laser pointers temporarily blinding Philippine sailors to collisions at sea near key military outposts, encounters between Chinese and Philippine vessels have grown more tense in the strategically and economically important South China Sea, where the two nations have overlapping claims.
Tensions came to a head last June, when the China Coast Guard (CCG), the world’s largest, and other Chinese government vessels interfered with a Philippine Navy mission near the Second Thomas Shoal. That mission had been aimed at resupplying a garrison atop the BRP Sierra Madre, a rusting ship that the Philippine government purposely grounded in 1999 to assert sovereignty over the atoll.
During the incident, chaos erupted as the Chinese vessels surrounded, rammed and boarded a Philippine Navy inflatable boat, using knives and axes to damage the vessel and destroy equipment. More strikingly, the incident also resulted in injuries to Philippine personnel.
While resupply missions to the outpost have gone relatively smoothly ever since the two sides reached a provisional understanding the following month, tensions remain high.
“The ongoing risk of miscalculation or misjudgment by either side means that Second Thomas Shoal remains a potential flash point,” retired Vice Adm. Alexander Lopez, the spokesperson of the Philippines’ National Maritime Council, said in an interview.
A potential trigger point relates to what is being supplied to the BRP Sierra Madre.
Beijing has alleged that, in addition to transporting fresh water, fuel and food, clothing and communication devices, Manila is using the missions to bring construction materials to the outpost in an attempt to make it a permanent facility and cement its claim to the area.
The Philippines has a different view on the matter, with Lopez saying that what’s being provided are items to help improve the troops’ living conditions.
“We simply want to ensure they can endure whatever the forces of nature throw at them and make their patriotic duties more bearable,” he said.
In the meantime, other potential flash points are emerging.
Tarriela said he is concerned about the CCG’s recent deployment of a 165-meter “monster” ship inside Manila’s EEZ, which extends 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from its coast.
Philippine officials say Chinese vessels have been venturing deeper into the county’s EEZ, maintaining a near continuous presence in waters 80 to 90 nautical miles off the coast of Zambales province since early January.
The unprecedented moves come after Manila enacted two laws in late November that delineate the country’s maritime boundaries and designate sea lanes for foreign vessels in Philippine waters.
While the Philippine military and coast guard conduct regular joint exercises and patrols with partner forces, including those from Japan and the U.S., these aren’t normally held in waters near the large CCG and maritime militia presence.
“The reason why the Chinese are not being deterred is because neither the military nor the coast guard is conducting joint patrols near these flash points," said Dindo Manhit, president of the Stratbase ADR Institute, one of the Philippine’s leading research consultancies.
“We need to adjust,” he said, urging the Marcos administration to “take the lead” and prioritize a more assertive pushback. “Only by working together can the Philippines successfully assert its right in the WPS.”
Speaking to journalists last September, the U.S. Coast Guard’s Pacific Area commander, Vice Adm. Andrew Tiongson, said that while his agency has been “advising and assisting” Manila in the Second Thomas Shoal resupply missions, it has not been asked to provide escorts amid efforts “not to overly escalate the situation.”
“We assist (the Philippine PCG) with coming up with some of their plans, but we do not accompany them,” Tiongson said at the time, noting that support has so far been limited to “tactics, techniques and procedures to help in those types of situations.”
Manila’s reasons to hold off on joint patrols are multifold, but one argument often cited by Philippine officials is the need for restraint.
“As long as the situation is still manageable on our part, our government’s position is that we will do it on our own terms, using our own resources,” Lopez said.
In the meantime, Manila’s efforts to ramp up cooperation with like-minded nations, expose China’s “illegal” activities and pursue a diplomatic approach will continue, he said, stressing that if the country ever felt the need to call for additional foreign support, the decision would come directly from the president.
Marcos warned last May that if a Philippine citizen were to be deliberately killed in a clash with the CCG, this would be a red line and “very close to what we define as an act of war,” meaning that such an incident could prompt Manila to invoke its 1951 mutual defense treaty with the U.S.
For now, however, Manila plans to continue using diplomatic channels and mechanisms “in compliance with the code of conduct we signed in 2002, which calls on parties to exercise restraint in the conduct of activities that would complicate or even escalate the dispute,” Lopez said.
The government also plans to continue pursuing legal remedies through international bodies and under the United Nations charter, Lopez added.
“The Chinese are operating based on a ‘might-is-right’ mentality, whereas we are following a ‘right-is-might’ approach,” Lopez said, stressing that the Philippines, which in 2016 won a landmark arbitration case that invalidated Beijing's expansive South China Sea claims, “will do nothing to provoke China.”
But, he warned, Manila’s restraint should not be mistaken for weakness.
“Whatever happens, our government will not cede a single square inch of our territory, even to a superpower, and will assert and defend our rights, sovereignty and jurisdiction over the West Philippine Sea.”
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