Written by AFP
The Philippine government would support Japan dropping its pacifist constitution to become a fully fledged military force and act as a balance against a rising China, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario yesterday said.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Del Rosario stressed the Philippines would strongly support a rearmed Japan — its World War II foe — as a counterweight to what it sees as Chinese provocation.
“We are looking for balancing factors in the region and Japan could be a significant balancing factor,” he told the paper amid growing tensions over the South China Sea, almost all of which is claimed by China.
Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez confirmed the government’s view that Japan should upgrade its military from a self-defense force so that it has more freedom to operate in the region.
“(Del Rosario) said we are in favor of Japan’s gaining strength,” Hernandez told Agence France Presse.
The newspaper interview comes shortly before a general election in Japan where the front-runner, opposition leader Shinzo Abe, has said he wants to revise the country’s pacifist constitution, imposed by the US after the war, and stand up to China over disputed isles in the East China Sea.
China claims most of the South China Sea, including waters close to the shores of its neighbors. These areas include major sea lanes and are believed to hold vast mineral and oil resources.
China’s claim is contested by the Philippines as well as Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam, which have overlapping claims to some or all of those same areas.
In April, Chinese patrol vessels prevented the Philippine Navy from arresting a group of Chinese fishermen at the Scarborough Shoal, located off Zambales province in Luzon.
Manila says China has continued to station patrol vessels in the area even after the Philippines withdrew its vessels and called for a peaceful resolution to the dispute according to international law.
Earlier this month, the Philippines asked China to clarify press reports Chinese authorities had authorized its forces to interdict ships entering what Beijing considers its territorial waters.
China and Japan are also in dispute over islands in the East China Sea that are controlled by Tokyo.
According to Japanese coast guard, four Chinese government ships sailed into the territorial waters of disputed islands controlled by Tokyo in the East China Sea last Friday.
The maritime surveillance vessels entered the 12-nautical-mile zone around Kubashima, one of the islands in the chain called the Senkakus by Japan and the Diaoyus by China.
Chinese vessels have been spotted in and around the territorial waters almost every day for the last two months.
Beijing earlier has branded a US-Japan security treaty “a product of the Cold War” when Washington lawmakers reiterated their support for Japan by passing amendment to the National Defense Authorization Bill.
The amendment noted that while the United States “takes no position” on the ultimate sovereignty of the territory, it “acknowledges the administration of Japan over the Senkaku Islands.”
The sovereignty of the islands has been a source of friction for decades, but the row erupted earlier this year after the nationalist governor of Tokyo said he wanted to buy them for the city, prompting the Japanese government to nationalize them.
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