The three-week long joint Philippines-US military exercises, have recently just ended. If you have noticed, there have been a lot of photographs circulating around the net of how both military sides have worked with each other; from Filipino soldiers teaching their American counterparts of the “Filipino” hand-to-hand combat, to American soldiers teaching the Filipinos the advanced weaponry that the former have brought in our shoes. Clearly, both sides appeared to have learned much from each other.
While, it is obvious that there’s a big difference between what the world’s most powerful military can impart to our armed forces and what our own military, among the weakest in Southeast Asia, can teach the Americans, I’m pretty sure the Americans have learned a thing or two from their Filipino counterpart, especially on fighting with unfamiliar terrain, like the jungle, or in the Philippine archipelago.
A scene, like the abovementioned joint exercise, would most likely not surprise Filipinos because, in so far as many Filipinos are concerned, the US and the Philippines are long allies. I mean, ever since the declaration of the latter’s independence from the former’s control, Filipino’s believe that the Americans view the Philippines as an ally. It may, or may not be true, but that is a discussion for another time.
However, while the Philippines and the US are happy to have strengthened their relationship thru these exercises and the expansion of the EDCA (Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement), one of the powerful neighbors of the Philippines, China, has quite a contrary reaction. Recent events show such contrary reaction where swarming activities by the Chinese Coast Guard and maritime militia against our troops monitoring the situation in our Exclusive Economic Zone in the South China Sea under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) have been tripled. In fact, a report has just recently been announced that a Chinese vessel almost collided with a Philippine coastguard vessel.
Is China really a friend, or foe? (AJDB)
