'We are not at war with China': Philippines' fishermen militia plan put on pause
Plans to deploy Filipino fishermen as militia forces in the South China Sea have been put on hold by the Philippines' government as "we are not at war with China", presidential National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon said on Wednesday.
Philippine defence officials had mooted the idea in a Senate finance committee hearing last month, saying they were considering creating ostensibly civilian maritime militia units similar to China's "little blue men".
But at the first-ever media briefing conducted by the Presidential Communications Operations Office on the South China Sea on Wednesday, Esperon said he had "a preference for forces that are better equipped rather than ragtag forces", while noting that some fishermen are already serving as unarmed volunteer sea patrols in coastal areas.
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The former military chief said plans to deploy fishermen in contested waters had not been "finalised" because of a desire to avoid "actions that would be misconstrued as miscalculations" and the fact that "we want them not as militias but as good fishermen".
FIshermen hoist a net to land a catch in Pangasinan province, the Philippines. Photo: Bloomberg
Filipino fishermen only get 7.3 per cent of their total yearly catch from the South China Sea, Esperon said, even though it is one of Asia's richest fishing grounds. He said the government was studying whether to deploy the coastguard and navy to protect fishermen in the disputed waterway.
The day before, Esperon had played down the national security threat posed by China at a Senate inquiry also attended by defence chief Delfin Lorenzana and head of the armed forces Gilbert Gapay.
Opposition senator Risa Hontiveros pointedly asked them during the Tuesday hearing: "Why are we focusing on internal threats [such as the country's long-running communist insurgency] when a former chief of staff of the armed forces has publicly stated that China will seize Philippine territory by force if a war were to break out between Beijing and Washington?"
The ex-armed forces chief she was referring to was Emmanuel Bautista, who said on an online forum last month: "Assuming [things] get out of hand and result in a shooting war [between China and the US in the South China Sea] ... China will seize the Philippines."
His statement spurred Hontiveros to ask Esperon: "Who is the biggest threat to our national security - a waning insurgency or an external threat from a superpower country?"
To which Esperon replied: "If you ask me if we have a threat from China, my reply would be, there is a country called China and she has interests in the South China Sea. Is our weapon purely military? If you want pure military, give us 4.5 trillion pesos (US$92.95 billion) worth of war weapons."
The security adviser went on to point out that the Philippines has "many needs for many things", including help fighting Covid-19. "Are we going to put everything on [combating] China? Even while China is extending the hand of friendship?" he asked.
The greatest security threat facing the Philippines, according to Esperon, is the Communist Party of the Philippines, together with its armed wing the New People's Army and associated front organisations, followed by the coronavirus pandemic.
Hermogenes Esperon, who now serves as Duterte's national security adviser, pictured while working for a previous president in a different capacity in 2008. Photo: AP
According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper, Esperon held a separate press briefing after the Senate hearing to tell reporters: "Is our relations with China to be considered war? I don't think so."
"We benefit from China as a market and we are getting projects ... We are not at war with China. The president is handling [the situation with China] very well," he was quoted as saying.
During Wednesday's briefing at the presidential palace, Esperon also expressed confidence that the Philippines would be able to explore for oil in the South China Sea that "could result in production by 2024 or 2025". President Rodrigo Duterte lifted a seven-year ban on oil exploration in the area last month.
Esperon said without elaborating that "China will always come into the area and we have taken measures to see to it that it would be on the basis of the memorandum of understanding that we signed in 2018".
He added that both countries continue to talk about oil exploration, including during the recent visit of Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jnr to Beijing. A November 2019 deadline for entering into a formal "cooperation arrangement" provided for in the memorandum of understanding has long lapsed, however.
Esperon said "we would like to hold on to" the 2018 memorandum "among others, when we deploy our [oil] platforms to Malampaya as well as to Reed Bank".
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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