Defense Sec. Gilberto Teodoro Jr. | INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO/Ryan Leagogo
MANILA, Philippines — Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. said on Tuesday that the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) between the Philippines and the United States needs to have a wider scope to serve as a better deterrent against what he described as a “cunning” adversary.
Teodoro made this remark about the treaty between Manila and Washington, which calls for each other’s defense in case of an armed attack, during a forum organized by the United States’ Indo-Pacific Command.
“I think we should broaden the scope of MDT to face a dynamic and cunning adversary,” Teodoro said in an ambush interview.
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In an earlier speech, the Defense chief highlighted the dangers of narrowing down the interpretations of the MDT.
“The MDT itself between the United States and the Philippines is a great deterrent, and I think it is important that it should be interpreted dynamically, and the biggest danger for us is to narrow down or canalize our operational limitations,” he said.
Teodoro continued: “We shouldn’t be canalized, because once you canalize yourselves, then you box yourself off against an adversary which has no rules, which is hell bent on gaining influence.”
He particularly cited what he deemed as the public’s fixation on what constitutes an “armed attack.”
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“We’re getting narrowed down on a wooden definition of an armed attack on a public vessel, et cetera and the public gets fixated from that,” he noted.
Articles IV and V of the MDT states that an armed attack in the Pacific, including anywhere in the South China Sea, on either of Manila and Washington’s public vessels, aircraft, or armed forces, including their coast guards, would invoke mutual defense commitments.
However, the term “armed attack” was not clearly defined in the treaty.
Discussions emerge over what constitutes an armed attack under the MDT whenever Beijing conducts activities that Manila deems escalatory, such as the use of military-grade lasers, water cannons, and even ramming incidents, one of which left a navy personnel without a thumb last June.
So far, the Philippine side said such acts by China does not yet constitute an armed attack.
Beijing’s actions are in line with its assertion of sovereignty in almost the entire South China Sea, including most of the West Philippine Sea, even if such a claim has been effectively invalidated by the arbitral award issued in July 2016.
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This landmark ruling stemmed from a case filed by Manila in 2013, a year after its tense standoff with Beijing over Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal, whose lagoon is now effectively controlled by the latter.
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