US, Philippine troops storm ashore in bulked-up drills
SAN ANTONIO, Philippines: US and Philippine troops stormed ashore from the disputed South China Sea on Wednesday for military exercises that President Rodrigo Duterte had promised to scrap, but quietly allowed to carry on.
The decades-old tradition appeared headed for the history books last year as a newly elected Duterte pivoted toward China – and away from long-time Philippine allies the US.
But the number of troops taking part in the drills has increased by a third from last year to 8,000, a return to figures seen in years past when the exercises served as a thinly veiled deterrent to a rising China.
The reason for Duterte’s change of heart on the two-week drills codenamed “Balikatan”, or “Shoulder-to-Shoulder”, may be down to what experts see as careful efforts by the Filipino military to restrain their unpredictable president.
“The fact it’s being done under this administration means they (Duterte’s government) now have a better understanding of the security equation,” political analyst Victor Andres Manhit told AFP.
Though the bulked-up manoeuvres – including a livefire component that was dropped last year – took place on a naval base just 180 kilometres (110 miles) east of the Filipino-claimed Scarborough Shoal that China has controlled since 2012, the drill’s leaders barely mentioned Beijing.
“We are an island nation. That’s why we need to improve our capabilities on amphibious operations,” Philippine MajorGeneral Emmanuel Salamat told reporters.
“We’re not concerned about Scarborough. We’re concerned about what we’re doing here.”
China claims most of the South China Sea, a strategic waterway believed to harbour significant oil and natural gas deposits, but this was ruled illegal in 2016 after Duterte’s predecessor Benigno Aquino filed suit before an international maritime tribunal.