PH-Australia WPS patrol successful

DESPITE China “shadowing,” the Philippine-Australia joint patrol in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) was a success, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. said on Monday.

While there was no direct confrontation, Brawner said two Chinese jet fighters encircled a Philippine Air Force Tucano fighter plane for five minutes, and a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy ship shadowed a Philippine Navy vessel on the second day of the joint patrols.

Philippine Navy ships BRP Gregorio del Pilar (front) and BRP Davao del Sur (center) conduct a maritime cooperative activity with HMAS Toowoomba (back) during a regional presence deployment. PHOTO FROM THE AUSTRALIAN DEFENSE DEPARTMENT

Brawner said the encircling of Chinese jet fighters lasted for five minutes against an air force plane while flying over Hubo Reef situated a few miles off Ayungin Shoal where BRP Sierra Madre was grounded.

“There were no untoward incidents, but more importantly we were able to achieve the objectives,” he said.

He said the shadowing was unusual since US and Japanese aircrafts also witnessed the same Chinese action in previous maritime patrols not only in WPS, but also in the East China Sea.

“We don’t know what [message] they are trying to send us, but for us it is very clear that what we are doing are legitimate operations and we have all the right to patrol our territorial seas and our exclusive economic zone,” Brawner said.

“There’s always that risk and we also are ready to face the risk but it is also our responsibility to protect our territorial seas and our exclusive economic zone because we have to really protect our sovereignty and besides, we are also protecting our fishermen who are in the West Philippine Sea,” he added.

Despite China’s actions, future territorial patrols in WPS with other countries will not be hampered, he said.

He expressed optimism that the multilateral sails with other countries will occur early next year.

Japan, Canada and the US have committed to have similar patrols with the Armed Forces of the Philippines soon.