Obama in Malacañang. President Benigno Aquino III welcomes US President Barack Obama at Malacañang on Monday, April 28. Gil Nartea
“At the end of the day, we are not a threat, militarily, to any country.”
This was President Benigno Aquino III’s admission before US President Barack Obama, the leader of the country’s oldest treaty ally and most powerful country in the world.
Aquino said that the Phlippines does not even have a single fighter aircraft in its inventory and it has a 36,000-kilometer coastline to worry about.
“We do have concerns about poaching [in] our waters and preserving the environment and even protecting endangered species. So I think no country should begrudge us our rights to be able to attend to our concerns and our needs,” he said.
The Philippines has sought international arbitration over China’s “nine-dash-line” claims to about 90 percent of the South China Sea, an important shipping route that is believed to be rich in energy resources.
Apart from the Philippines, Beijing’s territorial claims overlap with that of Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan.
Just hours before Obama arrived in Manila on Monday, US and Philippine officials signed an agreement that will increase the presence of US troops in the country.
Aquino, however, said China “shouldn’t be concerned about this agreement.”
He said they only seek to train Filipino troops, especially in disaster relief operations.
“The training will not just train our people on how to operate… particular aircraft, but more importantly even help the Office of Civil Defense, for instance, manage this resource in case a storm or another natural disaster of the scale that transpired does happen,” he said.
Obama, during the same joint press conference, also said the US does not seek to counter or contain China. — JDS, GMA News
