Marcos’ dare in response to Chinese incursions in WPS
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Thursday issued a strong challenge to China, saying his government will remove the US Typhon missile system from the Philippines if Beijing ends its “aggressive and coercive behavior” in the West Philippine Sea.
“Let’s make a deal with China: Stop claiming our territory, stop harassing our fishermen, stop ramming our boats, stop water cannoning our people, stop firing lasers at us, and stop your aggressive and coercive behavior—then I’ll return the Typhon missiles,” President Marcos said in an interview in Cebu.
“If they stop what they’re doing, I’ll return all of it,” he added.
The US military deployed the Typhon missile system in the northern Philippines last year as part of an annual joint exercise, and Filipino troops have been training with it, with plans to acquire the system as a means to protect maritime interests.
Beijing’s forces have harassed Philippine vessels in recent months in waters within Manila’s 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone.
“I don’t understand (China’s) comments on the Typhon missiles. We don’t make any comments on their missile systems, and their missile systems are a thousand times more powerful than what we have,” Mr. Marcos said.
The Philippine Army said this week another of its platoons would be trained on using the Typhon system in February, ahead of annual joint drills with key ally the United States.
The week-long training will be conducted alongside troops from the US Army Pacific’s 1st Multi-Domain Task Force as part of the Combined Arms Training Exercise (CATEX).
On Wednesday, Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson for the WPS Commodore Jay Tarriela said China Coast Guard 3304, which replaced CCG-5901 dubbed the “monster ship,” was last spotted 88 nautical miles away from Zambales.
CCG-5901 was first monitored to have intruded into the country’s EEZ at a distance of 54 nautical miles from Capones Island in Zambales on Jan. 4.
“From January 4 until now, we have rotated our vessels to [BRP Teresa] Magbanua, [BRP] Gabriela Silang, [BRP] Suluan, [BRP] Cabra, and then again, it’s BRP Teresa Magbanua who is taking responsibility of monitoring and challenging the CCG monster ship,” Tarriela said.
The PCG also reported a surge in online trolls targeting government social media pages following increased transparency efforts in the WPS.
Tarriela said the PCG and the NTF-WPS are developing strategies to “dominate the public discourse about our factual narrative.”
“We are committed to protecting the interests of Filipino fishermen and safeguarding our maritime jurisdiction. At the same time, as President Marcos said, we should come up with actions that will not escalate the tension,” he added. With AFP
Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline: “Philippines to remove US missile system if China ends ‘coercive behavior’”