US assures assistance for Filipino troops in disputed sea

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin yesterday said he asked the visiting US Pacific commander to help protect the transport of fresh Filipino troops and supplies to Philippine-occupied reefs in the disputed South China Sea by deploying American patrol planes to discourage Chinese moves to block the resupply missions.

The Philippines has protested past attempts by Chinese coast guard ships to block smaller boats transporting fresh military personnel, food and other supplies to a Filipino military ship outpost at the disputed Ayungin Shoal (Second Thomas Shoal), which is also being claimed and guarded by Chinese coast guard ships. The tense standoff at the shoal has lasted two years.

Gazmin said the commander, Admiral Harry Harris Jr., assured him of US readiness to provide assistance, adding that the US military has flown an aircraft at least once when a Philippine boat delivered supplies last year to Filipino marines marooned on a rusty naval ship that ran aground years ago at the disputed shoal.

AP journalists witnessing a resupply mission last year saw a US military plane hovering above a Filipino supply boat, which a Chinese coast guard ship tried but failed to block.

Such US military flights deter Chinese moves, Gazmin said, adding that Philippine resupply boats have been harassed less by Chinese coast guard ships after the deployment of the US patrol plane.

“If there are Americans flying around there, we won’t be troubled,” Gazmin told The Associated Press in an interview. “We need to be helped in our resupply missions. The best way they could assist is through their presence.”

Ayungin Shoal, which is called Ren’ai by the Chinese, and the nearby Spratly Islands lie about 190 kilometers from the western Philippine province of Palawan, and about more than 1,000 kilometers from southern China. China’s foreign ministry says Beijing has “indisputable sovereignty” over the shoal.