Marines occupy 9 stations within West Philippine Sea

The Philippine military's marines and sailors are currently occupying nine stations at West Philippine Sea to assert country's sovereignty and security within the region, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff General Cirilito Sobejana said Monday.

"As we speak, we are occupying nine stations, we have sailors and marines there (West Philippine Sea), occupying islets and some shoals," Sobejana said, partly in Filipino, over CNN Philippines.

Aside from this, Sobejana said they will improve their security in the country's territorial waters by setting up CCTVs that would show real time events on the situation at the West Philippine Sea.

"We are enhancing our security exposures in that part of our country. We are also planning to set up high resolution CCTVs so that our situation arrangement will be real time," he pointed out, partly in Filipino.

He added that there are 10 navy ships from the military's Western Command (Wescom)to go around and protect the country's territorial waters in the West Philippine Sea.

Sobejana said there are still Chinese ships including militia vessels within the Philippines' jurisdiction but deferred further information to the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS).

"There are still Chinese vessels from their coastguard. Some are militias, some are fishermen," the military chief said.

On updates regarding their plan to transform Pagasa Island into a logistics hub, Sobejana said they are already contacting the Palawan government regarding budget and construction concerns.

He said they need a "substantial amount" of funds to make the logistics hub possible. Previously, Sobejana proposed the hub to allow ships to refuel and resupply as they continue maritime drills there.

Last week, the Department of Foreign Affairs launched another diplomatic protest against China over the Chinese vessels' challenge against the Coast Guard.

Philippines deployed several naval and air assets at the Philippines' maritime territory. Recently, Philippine Coast Guard issued a radio challenge to drive Chinese ships away from the Sabina Shoal, which is within the Philippine jurisdiction.—AOL, GMA News