The Philippines must strengthen its maritime and air capabilities to defend and protect its territory from the threat of foreign invasion, an analyst said on Saturday.
At the Saturday News Forum in Quezon City, De La Salle University professor Renato de Castro even suggested that the Marcos administration should now focus on external threats, particularly China’s provocative actions towards the Philippines in the latter’s waters.
Meanwhile, President Marcos’ decision to hold off on invoking the Philippines-US Mutual Defense Treaty after the latest skirmishes with Chinese ships in the West Philippine Sea was the correct call, according to maritime law expert Professor Jay Batongbacal.
Batongbacal stressed the importance of peaceful and diplomaticsolutions for issues in the WPS, pointing out that the MDT, while outlining mutual defense in case of an armed attack, also emphasizes cooperation in broader security challenges.
As director of the University of the Philippines Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea, Batongbacal said the government must take an unconventional approach to defend the country’s territory.
Batongbacal said the “big” challenge for the administration is that Philippine waters and maritime natural resources “are being taken actively” by China.
De Castro added that the government must come up with “comprehensive” strategies and suggested that it may conduct a unilateral exploration of the country’s resources and develop the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ tri-service composed of the Army, Air Force, and Navy units.
Given that China “has the largest navy in the world,” de Castro proposed amending the AFP Modernization Law to allow the military to acquire its warships from local manufacturers.
On Friday, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. announced that the AFP has adopted the new Comprehensive Archipelagic Defense Concept to defend the Philippine territory, including its EEZ.
The move comes as Chinese President Xi Jinping called for coordination of his country’s military strategy at sea and to prepare for potential maritime conflicts.
“The very essence of this, of course, is to develop our capability to protect our comprehensive power in our exclusive economic zone. Not just in the West Philippine Sea, not just in the South China Sea, but in the entirety of our territory,” de Castro said.
“Of course, this will entail a huge amount of money because indeed, we literally have to start from scratch. But this is of course our effort to address what we call a quintessential security threat, which is, of course, China literally knocking on our door,” he added.
De Castro also emphasized the need to improve the country’s port facilities and develop the shipbuilding industry. “You cannot develop a credible navy if we do not have a strong shipbuilding industry,” he said. “We have to get ready and, of course, the first thing that we have to do is we have to understand the issue.”