Manila, US to hold war games

Two killed in south as police disperse protests

MANILA, April 2, (AFP): Thousands of US and Filipino soldiers will on Monday launch annual war games that this year are being seen as a show of strength in the face of China’s increasing assertiveness in the region.

The 11-day Balikatan (shoulder-toshoulder) exercises are expected to show how the Philippines, though severely outgunned, can counter China with the help of the United States, its longest-standing ally.

China has in recent months built massive structures including radar systems and an airstrip over reefs and outcrops in the contested South China Sea, sparking international concern.

Beijing lays claim to almost all of the waters, which are important for international shipping and believed to hold valuable mineral and energy deposits, and neighbouring countries fear China could impose military controls over the entire sea.

The joint manoeuvres come ahead of a decision this year by a United Nationsbacked tribunal on a legal challenge by Manila to China’s territorial claims.

Adding to the tensions, the Philippines is preparing to host US troops in five bases under a defence pact born out of US President Barack Obama’s plan to reassert American influence in the Pacific.

Balikatan has evolved from counterterrorism manoeuvres against Islamic extremists like the Philippines’ Abu Sayyaf, to simulations of retaking and protecting territory as disputes with Beijing have escalated.

However, Filipino and US officials insist the exercises are not explicitly aimed at China.

Balikatan spokesman Captain Celeste Frank Sayson said 55 US aircraft would take part in the drills, while the Philippines will deploy fighter jets it has recently acquired.

While no specific staging areas have been disclosed, the two allies have in recent years held war games at air bases just 230 kilometres (140 miles) from the disputed areas in the South China Sea.

Rene de Castro, an international studies professor at the De La Salle University in Manila, told AFP the drills appeared to have China’s expansion in the South China Sea in mind.

“Looking at the features of Balikatan -- the mobile missile-launchers, the fighter planes -- that is an indication that the alliance is being geared for territorial defence,” he said.

Richard Javad Heydarian, a political science professor at the De La Salle University in Manila, added that the exercises “aim to enhance interoperability among allies nations and signal their preparedness to confront China if necessary”.

The Philippine military said the US High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), designed to shoot down aircraft, will be sent to Palawan, the Philippines’ westernmost island on the South China Sea, during the war games.

The Philippines operates one airstrip in the South China Sea, on Thitu island, where there are around 350 civilian residents.

It also keeps small military contingents in smaller outcrops, including Second Thomas Shoal, where Marines are stationed on a decaying World War II ship.

The Philippines, which has one of the weakest militaries in the region, has sought to counter China’s overwhelming military advantage by improving ties with the United States and Japan.

While it has acquired new fighter jets and surplus US naval ships, the Southeast Asian nation still has far to go, De Castro warned.

China’s defence budget dwarfs that of the Philippines and Beijing is this year set to outspend its smaller neighbour by a factor of around 60.

The Philippines is also increasing its military engagements with the US with the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement, which took effect in January.

Under the deal, US troops will rotate through five military camps including two air bases that are strategically positioned near the South China Sea.

“It is very apparent that the thrust of (the agreement) is air power,” said former national security adviser Roilo Golez.

Australia, which recently criticised China’s assertiveness in the disputed waters, is sending 80 troops to join parachute drills as part of the manoeuvres, Sayson said.

Obama this week confronted Chinese President Xi Jinping over Beijing’s actions in the disputed seas.

Tensions have flared between the superpowers since the US sent warships close to disputed islands twice in the past six months.

Meanwhile, two people were killed in the southern Philippines after clashes between police and thousands of drought-hit farmers protesting over a lack of food, a demonstration leader said Saturday.

Patches of blood stained a parched highway in impoverished Kidapawan city, capital of Cotabato province, which had been barricaded by 6,000 farmers since Wednesday to demand 15,000 sacks of rice from the government.

Gunshots were fired and rocks hurled into the air during a scuffle between police and demonstrators on Friday, an AFP photographer on the scene saw, as the authorities tried to disperse the crowds.

“We asked for rice. Instead, they gave us bullets,” protest leader Norma Capuyan, who witnessed the melee, told AFP.

“The farmers are starving because they have nothing to eat. We went there looking for a solution.”

The Philippines has been gripped by a strong El Nino dry spell since December which has hit food production, particularly in the conflict-wracked south which is home to the country’s poorest and where more than half of the population is reliant on agriculture.

Panicked protesters picked their bloodied comrades from the highway and treated their wounds by the roadside as they were sprayed with water from firetrucks, Capuyan said.

“Everyone was angry. The police were hitting us. It was a real commotion,” Capuyan said, adding that the rallyists had left the highway and retreated to a nearby church.

Capuyan claimed 116 protesters were wounded while 89 others were missing. The two gunshot fatalities were male farmers in their 40s, she said.

Police could not immediately confirm the fatalities, but said 40 of its men were also hurt in the ruckus, two of them in critical condition.

Authorities “exhausted all possible remedies” to end the protest peacefully, but farmers started the scuffle by throwing rocks and twigs, national police spokesman Chief Superintendent Wilben Mayor said in a statement.

North Cotabato governor Emmylou Mendoza told reporters she was taking “full responsibility” for the incident.

Presidential spokesman Manolo Quezon said an investigation was underway.

“There is no reason why people must die for asking for assistance from their own government,” he told reporters on Saturday.

The state weather bureau had warned last year that rainfall could decrease by as much as 80 percent during the drought, which is expected to last until the middle of this year.