Can we expect the Americans to help in maritime row?

With no let-up in China's island-building acivities in disputed islands in the West Philippine Sea/South China Sea, the Philippines is seeking help from the United States to monitor "real-time" developments in the area through surveillance and reconnaissance.

      

The request for help from the US was conveyed to U.S. Pacific Command chief, Admiral Harry Harris, who visited Palawan on Thursday to see first-hand the situation in the area near where China has built artificial islands.

      

Specifically, the DND wants the US to provide air cover to a civilian ship that regularly delivers supplies to Second Thomas Shoal in the disputed waters.

      

The Philippine request for military assistance is justified as China has blocked attempts by the Philippine Navy to rotate troops and bring supplies to a ship that ran aground on Ayungin shoal.

      

China's frenzied reclamation works in what is clearly part of our Exclusive Econmic Zone under the terms of the United Nations Convention  on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) has heightened tension in the South China Sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year.

      

The Philippines is on the right track in exhausting legal and diplomatic efforts to resolve the maritime dispute. But since we have yet to modernize our military and  deter Chinese incursions on our western flank, we have no choice but to ask our longstanding ally, the United States, to help in aerial surveillance and reconnaisance.

This is a reasonable request that the US should consider favorably as it is also in its national interest to protect the vital sealane. –End-

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