A U.S. South China Sea Perspective: Just Over the Horizon

Modern U.S.-Philippines relations are founded on the 1952 Mutual Defense Treaty for
economic, diplomatic, and military cooperation. A low point in U.S.-Philippines relations came
in 1992 when the U.S. military closed the massive Subic Bay Naval Base and Clark Air Force
Base in the Philippines after the Philippines Senate did not approve a treaty that would have
renewed the base leases for another ten years. However, the U.S.-Philippine relationship was
strengthened when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke onboard the USS Fitzgerald moored
in Manila Bay to celebrate the 60 th anniversary of the Mutual Defense Treaty on 16 November
2011. As the highest ranking cabinet secretary of President Obama’s administration, her speech
on the deck of a U.S. warship on the coast of the South China Sea quickly resonated throughout
the region:
[T]oday we meet in a new era where we face new challenges but also where we confront
new opportunities. So we must ensure that this alliance remains strong, capable of
delivering results for the people of the Philippines, the United States, and our neighbors
throughout the Asia Pacific. We are now updating our alliance and all of our alliances in
the region with three guidelines in mind. First, we are working to ensure that the core
objectives of our alliances have the political support of our people. Second, we want our
alliances to be nimble, adaptive, flexible so they can continue to deliver results in this
new world. And third, we are making sure that our collective defense capabilities and
communications infrastructure are operationally and materially capable of deterring
provocation from the full spectrum of state and non-state actors.
To that end, the United States is working … to support the Philippines,
particularly in the maritime domain as you move to improve your territorial defense and
interdiction capabilities. 23
President Aquino’s desire for closer relations with the U.S. is based on its inability to
counter an increasingly aggressive China. When the United States closed its bases on the
Philippines in 1992 it turned over assets worth more than US$1.3 billion including an airport and
ship repair facility. 24 However, the Philippine Navy has been neglected for almost two decades.
General Ricardo David, Chief of Staff of the Philippine Armed Forces at the time, stated in a
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