China firing flares at AFP West Philippine Sea recon patrols –WesCom

The military's Western Command on Friday revealed that China, on at least five occasions, had fired flares to ward off Philippine intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) patrols in the West Philippine Sea.

During a Friday online briefing, WesCom's Lieutenant Colonel Bill Pasia said that China's assertiveness extended to the use of pyrotechnic signals or flares fired from buildings in occupied West Philippine Sea reefs.

"While we are patrolling the West Philippine Sea, our ISR teams are [also] consistently receiving radio challenges from Chinese Navy or reefs during routine flight patrols," Pasia added.

The colonel said that everything that was happening in the West Philippine Sea had an impact on Philippine sovereignty, from the present and beyond.

"The situation has implications as it affects our national security and our dignity as a nation," Pasia emphasized.

Nevertheless, the entire Philippine government and all its agencies were looking and working for solutions to address these challenges, with the military and WesCom only a portion of the mechanism of the whole-of-nation approach.

"The [Philippine Armed Forces], through the Western Command, is in a tough, challenging, and complicated balancing act of protecting the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country, and the management and [prevention] of the escalation of tensions in the West Philippine Sea," explained Pasia.

There is a need to address the matter, said Pasia, but not through military means alone, but rather, through a holistic and asymmetric West Philippine Sea maritime security strategy.

"As a nation, we support each other to assert and protect what is ours and we are counting on various sectors of our society." — DVM, GMA News