10/07/2025

THURSDAY | JULY 10, 2025

7

Philippines uses deterrence, diplomacy against incursions

DEEPER TIES KEY FOR SMALL STATES SINGAPORE: In a multipolar world, small countries like Singapore have to develop even deeper relationships with other nations, Home Minister K Shanmugam said yesterday. “There are more powers playing the game, as opposed to the time when the Americans held the peace across the world. So that’s changing, and in such a context, small countries like us have to develop even deeper relationships,” he said, pointing to China, the United States and Europe. Shanmugam, who is also coordinating minister for national security, was speaking in an interview at the Reuters NEXT Asia summit here. S’PORE TO HIRE 1,000 TEACHERS YEARLY SINGAPORE: The city state will recruit 1,000 teachers annually over the next few years, Education Minister Desmond Lee announced yesterday. This represents an increase from the previous intake of about 700 teachers each year. Speaking at the annual Teachers’ Investiture Ceremony at the National Institute of Education in Nanyang Technological University, Lee said that while Singapore has built a committed and high quality teaching force, the education system must continue to adapt to changing times. He said the system must do more than keep pace. – Bernama All the draft Bills propose to create a committee to determine the scope of political cases eligible for amnesty. More than 5,000 people have been charged with offences relating to political rallies and expression since 2006, including 281 people charged with royal insult, according to legal aid group Thai Lawyers for Human Rights. Thailand has one of the world’s harshest royal insult laws, setting jail terms of up to 15 years for anyone convicted of defaming, insulting or threatening the monarchy. The government is willing to approve amnesty for political cases but not for those involving corruption and insulting the monarchy, Wisut said. The main opposition People’s Party, which has submitted one of the draft Bills, does not specify offences eligible for amnesty but stipulates that those involved in insurrection, murder or abuse of power in security crackdowns would not be eligible. If one of the draft Bills passes the first reading in parliament, a committee will be formed ahead of a second and third reading in the lower house and the Senate, before it is sent to the king for endorsement. – Reuters task force, said authorities had so far seized more than 2 million hectares of illegally-run plantations in forest areas across the country, including other crops as well as oil palm trees. The task force is aiming to take over a total of 3 million hectares by August, which will either be retained as palm oil and other crop plantations or reforested, he said. – Reuters

BR I E F S

with Beijing to avert confrontations. “It is obvious that Asean countries are wary and worried. If not, there would be no call for a code of conduct. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to be very concerned about what is happening.” Since Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr took office in 2022, Manila has grown increasingly vocal in its opposition to China’s actions in the South China Sea, while significantly strengthening ties with ally the United States, and like minded partners, such as Australia and Japan. Teodoro believed it would be difficult for any future leader to reverse policy because it has strong public backing. Marcos’ single six-year term ends in 2028. “I feel that any leader in the future, in the face of what China is doing, and in the face of public opinion ... and there is a distrust, not of China, but of the Chinese government in what they are doing. So it would be hard for any leader to reshape that narrative.” – Reuters BANGKOK: Thailand’s parliament met yesterday to begin deliberations on draft Bills seeking amnesty for thousands of people charged with crimes relating to demonstrations and rallies over two decades. Five draft Bills submitted by four political parties and civil society groups would cover political demonstration related cases since 2005, a period of intermittent turbulence that saw two coups, the removal of three prime ministers by court orders and sometimes violent street protests. The ruling Pheu Thai party-led government, which is hanging on to power with a slim parliamentary majority following the suspension of prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra from duty by a court order last week, picked political amnesty as its first legislative agenda as the house reconvenes after a break. A previous bid for political amnesty by the Pheu Thai Party in 2013 backfired, triggering protests and, later, a coup. “People in this country have been in conflict for 20 years, this must come to an end,” said Pheu Thai lawmaker and government whip Wisut Chainarun.

Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan. Teodoro said Manila was focused on deterrence, backed by diplomacy. “You can’t have diplomacy without a credible deterrent force, and what we are doing is merely putting a

style and stance had served as a catalyst for China’s actions. “It depends on its own plan of action in the region, its own expansionist activities, its own need to control the area.” While acknowledging that US policies influence regional dynamics, Teodoro said China’s actions were “pre determined” by its leadership, regardless of who was in power in Washington. Despite rising tension in the major regional flashpoint of the South China Sea, Teodoro dismissed fears that conflict was on the horizon. “The prospect of war is not imminent. I believe it is remote, but that would entirely depend upon the internal conditions of China,” he said. China’s embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment. China claims almost the entire South China Sea, despite overlapping claims by Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the

MANILA: China’s aggressiveness in the Indo-Pacific is rooted in long standing strategic ambitions independent of any US policy, and the region’s challenges stem from Beijing’s own expansionist agenda, the Philippines’ top defence official said yesterday. The Philippines and China have had run-ins and heated exchanges in the South China Sea over the past two years, including an incident in June last year when a Philippine sailor lost a finger. “The aggressiveness of China has been several years in the making,” Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro (pic) said in an interview at the Reuters NEXT Asia summit in Singapore. “China’s design for the region does not depend on any American leader,” Teodoro said, replying to a query whether President Donald Trump’s o Defence chief sees remote chance of war

stop, as best as we can, to the ... incursions of China, which I do not think any country in the world supports,” he said. To boost its external defence capabilities, the Philippines is investing billions of dollars to modernise its military, and part of that plan is to acquire multi-role fighter jets. While submarines were on the wishlist, Teodoro said they were not a priority at the moment, with the focus on weaponising and building infrastructure to maintain platforms. Teodoro rejected the notion that Asean had failed to respond to China’s actions, given that the 10-nation Southeast Asian bloc has been working on a code of conduct

Thai parliament debates political amnesty Bills

LABOUR POWER ... Supporters of India’s Congress party blocking a train at a railway station in Patna, Bihar, yesterday during a nationwide general strike called by trade unions against perceived anti-worker policies. – AFPPIC

Indonesia hands over seized plantations to state company JAKARTA: Indonesia yesterday

care would reach over 833,000ha, Febrie said. The 394,547ha given to Agrinas yesterday were plantations in Central Kalimantan, Riau, North and South Sumatra. They were previously controlled by 232 companies but the government did not name them. Defence Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, who heads the forestry

Since March, Agrinas has been managing some 221,000ha of plantations on behalf of the AGO while the state pursues a money laundering case against the privately owned company Duta Palma. The other plantations managed by Agrinas were given to them by the forestry task force. With the new addition, the total area under Agrinas’

operating illegally in designated forest areas, said Febrie Adriansyah, a senior official at the Attorney General’s Office, who is also a member of the task force. Agrinas is a fast-growing new palm oil company, formed in January by the administration of President Prabowo Subianto through the restructuring of an infrastructure services firm.

handed over nearly 400,000ha of seized oil palm plantations to Agrinas Palma Nusantara, giving the new state company a sizeable land bank that could make it one of the world’s biggest oil palm growers. The plantations were seized by the government’s forestry task force because authorities believe they were