Philippines should join US naval drills amid West PHL Sea tension, solon says

The Philippines should participate in the naval drills by the United States, which earlier deployed forces in the South China Sea for a military exercise, Muntinlupa Representative Ruffy Biazon said on Friday.

Biazon, vice chairman of the House Committee on National Defense and Security, said taking part in the drills is a "way to make up for the imbalance of military power between the Philippines and China."

"We can see that for a while there seemed to be a cooling off of the relationship between the Philippines and the US, but I think it's time for us to engage our longtime allies and even possibly forge new ones," Biazon said in a statement.

"We have the international community sympathetic to our cause, and I think it’s the next step that we should be taking to make up for the imbalance of military power between China and the Philippines,” Biazon added.

Tension has once again built up in the resource-rich region because of the continuing presence of Chinese forces despite calls from Philippine officials to leave the area and the diplomatic protests lodged against China.

Earlier reports said last week, a US Navy expeditionary strike group composed of aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, amphibious assault ship USS Makin Island, a cruiser, destroyers, and smaller amphibious ships conducted exercises in the South China Sea.

The South China Sea, home to a cluster of islands, shoals, reefs and cays is being claimed in part or in whole by China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

The Philippines refers to the portion of the South China Sea where it has territorial claims as the West Philippine Sea.

According to Biazon, the Philippines should proceed with maritime patrols in the disputed area.

"As we have experienced recently, a Philippine Air Force plane was conducting maritime patrol and it was even challenged by the Chinese and the Philippine Air Force plane asserted its right to conduct patrols. I think we should be continuing to do that,” he said.

Meanwhile, the lawmaker speculated that because of the vaccines being donated by China amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the latter might try to influence the Philippines regarding issues in the West Philippine Sea.

Biazon said the issue in the West Philippine Sea and the donation of COVID-19 vaccines should be treated separately.

"Remember when there was talk about donations of vaccines going to the Armed Forces, I expressed my apprehension on that because we cannot set aside our concern on the West Philippine Sea,” he said.

“I think we should just proceed treating these two issues as parallel but that's just my opinion. We engaged China in securing vaccines whether it's by donation or procurement, and it is better if it's by procurement because it's just a business transaction," he added.

Biazon further stressed that the Philippine government should continue asserting sovereign rights in the region. -MDM, GMA News