The Department of National Defense reiterated that it was “greatly concerned” with the reported swarming of Chinese vessels in parts of the West Philippine Sea (WPS).
In a statement Wednesday, the DND said Chinese vessels were sighted in Iroquois Reef and Sabina Shoal.
This developed as China’s Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian expressed optimism that Beijing and Manila will develop “trust and understanding” towards each other as soon as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping next year.
Huang disclosed that China is already “working very hard to prepare” for the state visit of Mr. Marcos set on January 3, 2023, without mentioning the reports of Chinese boats massing near Palawan.
Meanwhile, the 2023 edition of the annual “Balikatan” joint exercises between American and Filipino troops will have a segment dedicated to operations in urban terrain.
“The 2023 iteration of ‘Balikatan’ is projected to include field training exercises composed of combined and live-fire exercises and military operations in urban terrain,” Philippine Army spokesperson Col. Xerxes Trinidad said in a statement Tuesday night.
Despite the reported swarming, DND officer-in-charge Jose Faustino Jr. maintained that local military forces would continue to conduct routine maritime and aerial patrols in the WPS.
While the DND remains open to dialogue, Faustino said the information gathered in their patrols “are submitted to relevant authorities for appropriate action.”
“We maintain that activities which violate our sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction, and undermine the peace and stability of the region, are unacceptable,” he said.
“The President’s directive to the Department is clear—we will not give up a single square inch of Philippine territory,” Faustino added.
“The Philippines remains committed to maintaining a rules-based order in the West Philippine Sea and the larger South China Sea and reserves the right to deal with any situation that violates or threatens our territorial integrity and sovereignty,” the DND OIC added.
But aside from developing a “closer relationship,” Huang said he hopes that the two countries would learn to “handle differences” following Marcos’ trip to China.
He expressed hopes that the Philippine-China relationship “will not be defined by specific differences” as the two countries still have competing claims over the South China Sea.
“I think we will have [to] develop more maritime cooperation in the future so that we can promote more trust and understanding between our sides,” Huang said.
“So we expect there’ll be more constructive, more fruitful in the action between our two presidents and let’s look forward to that,” he added.
In a forum in Quezon City, Huang said when asked about the developments in preparation for Marcos’ visit: “We have come a long way in the past six years in our bilateral relations. What we have achieved in the past six years, we are working to deepen our cooperation in various fields to bring more benefits to our two peoples.”
The diplomat said he hopes the two leaders would build on the four areas of cooperation the two governments have already started—namely agriculture, infrastructure, energy, and people-to-people exchanges.
Huang noted that the Philippines is now “on its way to its modernization,” just like China.
“We can become very good partners in helping each other in supporting each other,” he said, noting the friendship between the Philippines and China is now “millennium-old.”
The reported swarming came weeks after United States Vice President Kamala Harris visited the Philippines to show support for the country and counter China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific.
During her meeting with President Marcos, Harris pointed out that any armed attack on the Philippine military, as well as the country’s public vessels and aircraft “would invoke the US mutual defense commitment.”
On the Balikatan exercises, the Army provided no other details for security reasons. Urban terrain refers to heavily populated areas like towns or cities or locations densely packed with buildings and other infrastructure.
Trinidad made the statement after the PA joined the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and US Armed Forces’ Indo-Pacific Command (Indopacom) planners in threshing out the final details of next year’s “Balikatan”.
“The final planning conference (was held) at the AFP Education, Training and Doctrine Command, Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City on December 12, 2022,” he added.
“Balikatan” is an annual exercise between the AFP and Indopacom geared at enhancing both forces’ interoperability.
“The annual bilateral activity is also aimed at strengthening the capacity and competencies of both forces in a spectrum of military operations such as counter-terrorism and humanitarian assistance and disaster response,” Trinidad said.
In this year’s “Balikatan” exercises, around 3,800 members of the AFP and 5,100 US military personnel—the largest number of combined personnel of the two militaries in the annual exercise since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
The Philippines and US exercise forces employed more than 50 aircraft, four ships, 10 amphibious craft, four high mobility artillery rocket system launchers, and four Patriot missile systems during “Balikatan” 2022.
This year’s exercise also included approximately 40 personnel from the Australian Defense Force.