Lorenzana hopes bigger AFP funding can change PH stance on China

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana (PRESIDENTIAL PHOTOGRAPHERS DIVISION)

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana expressed hope that Congress would finally change his “what can we do?” stance against China’s aggressive construction in disputed areas of the West Philippine Sea.

At an interview by ABS-CBN, Lorenzana admitted that the Philippines was still incapable of defending its territorial claims on the West Philippine Sea against China.

“At present we don’t have any capabilities to even just demonstrate to others that we are capable because we are not capable,” Lorenzana said. “We don’t have the capital ships. we don’t have the weapons. Our sole airstrip in Pagasa is still very short and it is unpaved.”

Lorenzana said that it would take time for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to be fully capable of defending the country’s territory.

“But it depends on the funds we get from Congress – if they allocate more funds for our modernization program,” he said.

But he pointed out that lawmakers had assured the AFP of increased funding, from 1 percent to 2 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

“I think the perception of those in our Congress is changing also in the light of what’s happening in the South China Sea,” he noted, referring to China’s militarization of the disputed areas.

Reacting to his American counterpart James Mattis, he agreed that all claimant countries – Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, and the Philippines – in the South China Sea need to “band together” to have a stronger voice.

He said that all the Philippines could do currently would be to file diplomatic protests or note verbales and conduct dialogues with China.

“There’s nothing we can do,” he said. “If they [Chinese naval and coast guard vessels] block our people there from resupplying our outpost there in Spratlys then what can we do?”

He said that the problem with the arbitral ruling was the absence of a mechanism to enforce it, adding: “China would not accept it so what can we do?”

“By the time the case was resolved on July 10, 2016 their projects on the South China Sea were already finished. It’s a fait accompli. I think that we did not get anything from the arbitral ruling because the mechanism to enforce it is not there,” Lorenzana explained.

He maintained that the status quo established by President Rodrigo Duterte with China on the dispute remained a “win-win for both [countries].”

He said that  the country would benefit from the strategy taken by the President, whose name Lorenzana accidentally replaced with that of former President Benigno Aquino III, in directly approaching China for a resolution to the issue.

Apparently being defeatist in resolving China’s advances of its claim on the South China Sea, Lorenzana said: “It’s complicated. Maybe a solution to this problem will be thrown up by some other people in the next generation. Maybe they’re smarter than us.” /atm