Duterte’s political jujitsu between China and Japan

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Had the shrewd Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte outwitted the Japanese in their own game “Jujitsu” by using the Philippines' weakness against bully’s Mainland China into a strength at the expense of the Nippon-koku?

Some of these Mitsubishi made F-2A multi-role (based on a Lockheed Martin F-16 variant)
 of the Japanese Air Force where it has 64 on its hangar could be donated or lease to the poorly

equipped Philippine Airs Force.

Japan wants to replace its F-16s and F-15s by ordering 5th Generation 42 stealth and
 multi-role F-35 Lightning II 

from the U.S.

Jujitso is defined by Dictionary.com as a method developed in Japan of defending oneself without the use of weapons by using the strength and weight of an adversary to disable him.

As you know Duterte declared in the past that he would ask China to finance a multi -billion pesos railway systems in Mindanao and in Luzon.

“I will tell China, do not claim ownership and I will not mention patrimony, hayaan natin muna iyan, gusto mo let’s set that aside, you might want trade exploration,” he said, referring to China.

“I will just ask you to build a rail, just like what you did for Africa,” he continued”

He exhorted the Chinese to just build a  high-speed railway just like the line project of the Kenya Railways Corporation, which has cut travel time from Nairobi to Mombasa from 13 to three hours.

When I heard him declared this statement, I posed to myself:

“Would the United States or Japan allow this China funding?”

Son of a gun, a healthy relationship between the Philippines and China would be, well, unhealthy to Japan as the Banzai country relies on the five trillion dollar a year trade lanes in the South China Sea (SCS) where Japanese tankers and cargo ships traverse.

“What happen if a shooting war between the Chinese and the Japanese erupt at the disputed Senkaku or Diaoyu Islets that both countries passionately claimed?” I again posed to myself  since I could not asked somebody since I was alone in my room.

Gee whiz, Chinese subs, ships, and jets would start blasting with their weaponry the commercial cargo ships of the Japanese plying the SCS.

It’s dé·jà vu German U-Boats versus the ships of the Yanks and the Brits at the English Channel.

This ambushed at the SCS would surely paralyze the Japanese economy.

Before I could hear an answer from some geo-political experts, Masato Ohtaka, deputy press secretary for Japan's foreign ministry, said recently that Japan was willing to bankroll one of the biggest loans it could lent through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Excerpts of abs-cbn.com report that was posted last August 12:

“Japan on Friday announced it is pouring a massive $2.4 billion into a new railway in the Philippines aimed at easing Manila's notorious gridlock. Japan, Philippines' top trading partner and source of aid, said the 38-kilometer (24-mile) elevated commuter line would connect Manila to nearby Bulacan province to decongest the capital and help spur economic activity. This is one of the biggest projects Japan has ever embarked upon using the yen loan," Masato Ohtaka, deputy press secretary for Japan's foreign ministry, told reporters in Manila.

"Railways are one of our fortes ... We sympathize with the Filipinos that this is a project that needs to be done very, very quickly."

“Ohtaka said Japan was also open to building a railway in the southern region of Mindanao, a project Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte had previously said China offered to fund. Manila's traffic problems cost the Philippines an estimated $64 million a day in 2015, a Japanese-funded study found”.

Prior to this loan, Japan constructed 10 big Coast Guard Ships for the Philippines where two sturdy vessels would be released anytime from now.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries made F-4 Phantom II multiple role jets,
 where the Japan Air  Defense Force has 71 EF/RF-4EJ variants.

One of them is BRP Tubbataha for search and rescue and maritime security and law enforcement operations

Japan, the Philippines' top source of aid, said it was also discussing with Manila the lease of surveillance aircraft to help its under-equipped coast guard.

It promised to lease five of her United States made Beechcraft King’s TC-90s as donation need a new law at the same time could provoke China who has a fragile relationship with Japan on the disputed islets.

The five military aircraft to the Philippines would be used by the latter to patrol territories it claims in the disputed South China Sea.

Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani "reaffirmed the transfer" of the TC-90 surveillance planes in phone talks with his Philippine then counterpart Voltaire Gazmin, according to Philippines' Defence Ministry spokesman Arsenio Andolong.

With a range of some 1,900km, the TC-90s will double the area that the Philippines can patrol.

The Philippines, saddled with a severely under-equipped military, has been seeking to strengthen ties with Japan as tensions mount over the South China Sea.

In February, Japan agreed to supply it with military hardware, which officials said may include anti-submarine reconnaissance aircraft and radar technology.

As bellicosity of China spikes against Japan, I suspected that the latter would lease or donate a squadron of her 86 Lockheed P-3 Orion, a four-engine turboprop anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft, another squadron of manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries F-4 Phantom II multiple role jets, where the Japan Air Defense Force has 71 EF/RF-4EJ variants and Mitsubishi made F-2A multi-role (based on a Lockheed Martin F-16 variant) where it has 64 on its hangar and plan to replace them with the 5th Generation 42 stealth and multi-role F-35 Lightning II it ordered from the United States.

I’m not yet talking about its 54 retired, operational, and being constructed Oyashio and Soryu attack submarines and conventional subs of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.

Why these sudden generosity to the Philippines?

It’s plain and simple common sense military strategy my Dear Watson, the Banzai Country is apprehensive that a mano-a-mano war with the Chinks, where the latter maintained 57 conventional submarines and 28 nuclear submarines and I am not talking about the numbers of warships and top of the line fighter jets like J-16, J-11, J-10, J-8II, J-7, Su-27,Su-30MKK, and J-8II and bombers like JH-7, H-6 would be bloody with the former Expansionist Country of World War II.

By arming the courageous and never say die Filipinos, where some still use anting-anting (amulet) with modern weaponry, Beijing would find herself enmeshed in a two-front war in the Spratly Areas, Scarborough Shoal and in the Senkakus’ Areas.

And I am not yet talking here about the interference of Uncle Sam who would be obliged to honor a war treaty with the Japanese despite her ambiguous military fuck, er, pact with us Flips.

(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)