‘Phl stopped work on Pagasa airstrip’

MANILA, Philippines - There is a Palace-ordered freeze in infrastructure work – including repairs – on military and air facilities on Pagasa Island, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said yesterday.

The freeze, Gazmin told the Senate finance subcommittee, was meant to keep the Philippines on a “moral high ground” in its arbitration case against China regarding the latter’s disputing Manila’s sovereignty over Pagasa and other land forms in the West Philippine Sea.

Gazmin was responding to queries from Sen. Loren Legarda on how work to improve the country’s defense capabilities in disputed islands is faring.

“We got the specific instructions from the President to serve the status quo as stated by the legal opinion of attorney Batino,” the defense secretary said, referring to Defense Undersecretary Pio Lorenzo Batino.

Batino also heads the Philippine panel involved in the crafting of an Enhanced Development Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) with the United States.

“We do have funds for the improvement of, for example, the Pagasa airport but this is being held in abeyance because of the case that we have filed. It might affect the case that we have filed,” Gazmin said.

The Senate finance subcommittee, chaired by Legarda, was reviewing the Department of National Defense’ P141-billion budget for next year.

Batino told the Senate subcommittee that the government strategy was to exercise maximum restraint in dealing with the West Philippine Sea.

“The DND is mindful that the current tack as proposed by DFA is to exercise maximum restraint so that we can maintain our moral high ground in terms of the territorial disputes in the West Philippine Sea,” Batino said.

The President’s directive came amid his continuous and aggressive campaign for support for the Philippines’ position before the international community.

The DND’s budget for 2015 is P20 billion higher than this year’s allocations of P121.3 billion.

A moratorium on construction of outposts in disputed areas is one of the immediate approaches broached by the Philippines under its Triple Action Plan. The plan also calls for international arbitration as well as avoiding provocative actions in the West Philippine Sea.

The Philippine Air Force last June revealed that it’s all systems go for plans to repair the Rancudo airstrip that would involve dredging of an anchorage area to allow the entry of vessels with construction materials needed.

Gazmin also reported that China seemed to be not presently aggressive in the West Philippine Sea.

The defense secretary noted that the military is able to send supplies and food rations to soldiers stationed on the BRP Sierra Madre without being harassed by Chinese vessels.

“However, the DND continues to perform mandates as much it can under these legal constraints, in maintaining awareness in the West Philippine Sea… in order to guide the DFA in the issuance of policies,” Batino said.

Also during the budget hearing, Gazmin admitted that the DND is trying to make do with current limited budget and resources to improve its defense capabilities.

He also revealed that the Philippines’ defense system gets major boosts from “friendly” forces, but he did not identify them during the budget hearing.

It is no secret that the US and the Philippines have strengthened their military cooperation through the Visiting Forces Agreement and EDCA.  

“Right now, we have a very limited capability of monitoring. But because of our friendly relations with other countries we are provided information,” Gazmin said.

As this developed, Armed Forces chief Gen. Gregorio Catapang said it would take a bigger amount of budget before the military can further boost its modernization program for the next six to 12 years.

In the 2015 budget, Congress had allocated P30 billion only of the initial P85 billion requested by the AFP.

“We need radars and then additional ships. We also want the Coast Guard to also help us in going in and around the West Philippine Sea,” Catapang said.

The decision to defer development and infrastructures projects has caught local residents in Pagasa by surprise.

“We can’t believe that. We need the airfield to be repaired and we also need a safe harbor for the safe delivery of our basic needs here,” one resident told The STAR over the phone. With Jaime Laude