Japan to export used destroyers to Philippines as China deterrent

By Adrian H. Halili, Reporter

TOKYO — Japan will export used navy destroyers to the Philippines to strengthen its deterrence against China’s maritime expansion, Japanese newspaper Yomiuri reported on Sunday, as the two US allies increase cooperation to counter Beijing.

The export plan involves six Abukuma-class destroyer escorts in service by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force for more than three decades, the Japanese daily said, citing multiple unnamed government sources.

Defense ministers Gen Nakatani and Gilberto C. Teodoro, Jr. agreed to the destroyer export when they met in Singapore last month, the Yomiuri said, adding the Philippine military is set to inspect the destroyers this summer as part of the final preparations.

A Japanese defense ministry spokesperson declined to comment on the report. A Philippine military spokesperson and China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

Manila’s Defense department spokesman Arsenio R. Andolong and Philippine military spokeswoman Francel Margareth Padilla also did not immediately reply to ����ý’s separate Viber messages seeking comment.

Tokyo and Manila say they face challenges from Beijing’s increasingly assertive moves in waters including the South China Sea for the Philippines and the East China Sea for Japan.

Bilateral military cooperation has included joint exercises, a Japanese radar aid package and a high-level strategic dialogue. Last year they signed a reciprocal access agreement, the first such for Japan in Asia, allowing deployment of forces on each other’s soil.

To clear military equipment export restrictions for the destroyers under Japan’s pacifist mandates, Tokyo will treat the installation of equipment and communication systems requested by Manila as a joint development project, the Yomiuri said.

The Abukuma-class destroyer escort, a relatively small type of destroyer with a 2,000-ton standard displacement, is operated by a crew of about 120 and is armed with anti-submarine and anti-ship missiles, torpedo tubes and guns, according to a Japanese navy website.

The Philippine Navy does not have destroyers, only frigates and corvettes, which are typically smaller and lighter-armed vessels.

PHL-US JOINT AMMO HUB
Meanwhile, the proposed mutual ammunition facility between the United States and the Philippines could enhance existing Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) sites in the country, analysts said.

“The facility would complement EDCA sites because we would have local production, aside from just basing access,” Justin Keith A. Baquisal, a national security analyst at FACTS Asia, said in a Viber message.

US troops currently have access to nine EDCA sites, including two military bases in Cagayan which are facing Taiwan. These sites are used for security cooperation exercises, joint military training activities, humanitarian assistance, and disaster relief activities.

US Ambassador to Manila MaryKay L. Carlson said that the feasibility study is part of her government’s plans to enhance defense cooperation with the Philippines.

“I am not surprised, given the very strong bipartisan support for the Philippines in the US Congress, that they’re also looking at ways that they can continue to enhance US-Philippines defense cooperation here in the Philippines,” Ms. Carlson told reporters on the sidelines a US Independence Day reception last week.

Last month, the US House Committee on Appropriations ordered federal agencies to assess the feasibility of establishing a joint ammunition manufacturing and storage facility within a former US naval base in Subic Bay, Zambales province.

The US is the Philippines’ major security partner, with a 1951 defense treaty compelling both nations to defend each other in case of an armed attack.

Don Mclain Gill, who teaches international relations at De La Salle University in Manila, said that planned facility is a progression between Manila and Washington’s joint goals to enhance industrial defense cooperation.

“We could clearly see the statements made by the allies during their engagements are not just for rhetoric but are actually based on objective and sincere plans to build each other’s capabilities and at the same time to improve the Philippines’ position within this whole defense supply chain network in the Indo-Pacific,” he said via Facebook Messenger.

Mr. Baquisal noted that the Philippines’ ammunition facility has been unable to fully sustain the requirements of the armed forces and the police.

The Government Arsenal in Bataan province is responsible for the manufacture of basic weaponry and ammunition for the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police.

“An American facility might — in the near term — focus only on supplying US demand, but the facility can cultivate local employment and enable the Philippines to have technical specialists and logisticians who are up to global standards,” he added.

Chester B. Cabalza, founding president of Manila-based think tank International Development and Security Cooperation, said that the Philippine government should encourage the construction of the ammunitions facility to demonstrate support in revitalizing the defense industry.

“In the medium term, this facility will help the government’s ambition to build a self-reliant defense posture for strengthened sovereignty-centered diplomacy,” Mr. Cabalza said in a Facebook Messenger chat.

The Philippines has launched a $35-billion military modernization program to bolster its defense capabilities in the next decade, including the acquisition of advanced naval ships, planes and missile systems, amid ongoing tensions with China in the region.

On the other hand, Francis M. Esteban, who teaches at the Far Eastern University’s Department of International Studies, noted that the government should also weigh the environmental costs of establishing an ammunition facility.

“Having these ammunitions would have environmental cost, as the waste materials from it might be toxic. I believe local fisherfolk groups are also against it since it might be a target of Chinese attacks should a conflict arise,” he said in a Messenger chat.

Analysts have also noted that the construction of a facility with the US may further provoke protests from Beijing.

According to Mr. Baquisal, the facility may lead to protests from China even as he noted “an ammunition production and storage facility is really non-threatening to anybody.”

“Even in peacetime, militaries expend ammunition for training, etc. — so production capacity has to be present,” he added.

Mr. Cabalza said that China’s allies in the Philippines will criticize the active presence of the US.

“Beijing would use this spade to attack both Manila not to become a pawn of the US and Washington not to interfere in the region,” he added.

China claims nearly the entirety of the South China Sea via a U-shaped, 1940s nine-dash line map that overlaps with the exclusive waters of the Philippines and neighbors like Vietnam and Malaysia.

A United Nations-backed tribunal in 2016 voided China’s sweeping claims for being illegal, a ruling that Beijing does not recognize. — with Reuters and inputs from Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio