BRP Sierra Madre: US Forward Operating Base

DEFENSE Secretary Gilberto Teodoro firmly maintained that Ayungin Shoal (Second Thomas Shoal) lies completely within the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and that foreign entities like China have no right to interfere with lawful Philippine operations or activities.

Unfortunately for Teodoro, other than the Philippines and China, Vietnam also claims the Second Thomas Shoal (known in Vietnamese as Bai Co May) as part of its sovereignty claim over the entire Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.

Vietnam is the least of Teodoro’s challenge – China looms large and heavy over the little rusty piece of derelict junk the Philippines marooned there to stake its claim on the shoal.

China asserts historic and continuous jurisdiction over the feature, citing traditional activities and naming features by Chinese fishermen dating back centuries.

About the 2016 “Arbitration Award,” let me remind everyone of its paragraph 272, stating that, “… the Tribunal emphasizes that nothing in this Award should be understood to comment in any way on China’s historic claim to the islands of the South China Sea.”

China’s claim to Ayungin Shoal (Ren’ai Reef) is based on sovereignty while the Philippines has a weaker Exclusive Economic Zone claim.

This is one reason why out of the 195 countries of the UN, the number of the Award’s supporters has dwindled down—with not one ASEAN members– to only 14 “allies” (vassals) of the US.

I have personal insight to what went on in the negotiation of President Estrada and Chinese President Jiang Zhemin in 1999 when Estrada ordered the grounding of BRP Sierra Madre at Ayungin.

Estrada personally confided in me that when President Jiang (who had just granted a $50-million loan to the Philippines) confronted him about the grounding, he “promised” to pull it away as soon as the Philippines was ready.

Estrada then added an aside, “We’ll just let it sit there for other administrations to handle it.” Years later when his defense secretary, Orly Mercado, was asked about the same question by media he replied, “We never promised to pull the ship out…. but you know we politicians we have forked tongue…” revealing a subconscious truth.

What the Filipino public is unaware of but always in the room in Philippines-China affairs is the elephant in the room, the United States.

The elephant suddenly moved in 2023 in the same year that ex-US Air Force Col. Raymond Powell started the US’ “assertive transparency” project to provoke China into police action to defend its territory from PCG incursions.

Already encircled by US military bases, China will not allow the construction of a US Forward Operating Base (FOB) under the pretext of “repairing” the BRP Sierra Madre. Mark my word on this.

In September 2023, an article by Blake Herzinger, “War On The Rocks” in a US military magazine advocated that:

 “The Philippines should remove the Sierra Madre and replace it with a permanent structure manned by combined rotational forces from both the Philippines and the U.S. Marine Corps.

“Such a forward operating base would be a powerful signal of commitment to the alliance for both nations as well as providing significant improvements in situational awareness for both the United States and the Philippines.”

Herzinger is a former Lieutenant Commander in the US Pacific Command, a foreign area officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve and a Naval Institute lifetime member.

This is what the U.S. is maneuvering to establish behind the so-called ‘BRP Sierra Madre Defense’ that only caused conflict between the Department of Foreign Affairs’ “provisional understanding” with China for the humanitarian rotation and resupply missions for our troops marooned at BRP Sierra Madre involving only civilian ships, versus Gibo Teodoro’s American inspired hardline position.

Already encircled by US military bases, China will not allow the construction of a US Forward Operating Base (FOB) under the pretext of “repairing” the BRP Sierra Madre.

Mark my word on this.