McCain, other US senators in Manila for talks

US Senator John McCain. AP photo

Four US senators, led by former Republican Party presidential candidate John McCain, are scheduled to meet with Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario on Tuesday afternoon, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said.

Raul Hernandez, the spokesperson of the DFA, however, did not provide details on the meeting between  Del Rosarion and McCain, who had met in Washington in mid-2011.

Both the DFA and the US Embassy in Manila have kept mum about the schedule of the visiting American lawmakers.

The US Embassy announced over the weekend that the McCain-led delegation would be in the country from Jan. 16 to 18 to “meet with government leaders, discuss cooperation and reaffirm the alliance” between the two allies.

Aside from McCain, the group includes Joseph Lieberman (Connecticut), Sheldon Whitehouse (Rhode Island) and Kelly Ayotte (New Hampshire).

The visit could include a call on President Benigno Aquino III at Malacañang.

US Ambassador Harry Thomas Jr. had told Palace reporters  that the US senators “would like to have the opportunity to meet the President and his Cabinet and their counterparts.”

The US delegation will hold a brief press conference at the US Embassy Tuesday afternoon, according to the US mission.

During his June 21, 2011 meeting with Del Rosario in the US capital, McCain called on Washington to expand military and political support to Southeast Asian nations to stand up against China in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).

‘More unified front’

McCain said the US should help members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations like the Philippines develop and deploy an early warning system and coastal vessels in the disputed waters.

The US legislator, a  former US Navy captain,  said Washington should also turn to diplomacy to help Asean members sort out their own disputes and “establish a more unified front.”

McCain, who lost the 2008 presidential race to Barack Obama, welcomed the administration’s defense of freedom of navigation in the West Philippine Sea but said it should go further.

He said the US should let other countries know “which claims the US accepts, which ones we do not, and what actions we are prepared to support,” especially in defense of the Philippines, a treaty ally.

Meanwhile, the militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) expressed serious concerns over the US senators’ visit.

New defense strategy

Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. said “the visit comes in the wake of the unveiling of a new US defense strategy that aims to put more American troops in the Asia Pacific.”

In a statement, Reyes noted that McCain “has been a vocal advocate of US intervention in the Spratlys dispute.”

“This visit is a reaffirmation of the defense ties that make us a colonial outpost of the US,”  Reyes said as he urged the government to “assert the national interest during these high-profile meetings.”

Reyes also said, “Sadly, the government will again reaffirm the Visiting Forces Agreement, including the decade-long deployment of US troops in Mindanao. Predictably, the government will again lobby for more US military junk and second-hand equipment like the naval ship we got recently.”

“We don’t see any assertion of national sovereignty on the part of the Aquino administration. The present government has not even questioned why US troops have been based in Mindanao for a decade now without the benefit of a bases treaty,” he said.

Originally posted: 6:07 pm | Monday, January 16th, 2012