Army head assures ground forces ready to defend country from inland invasion
As the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) starts its transition to territorial defense operation, Army chief Lt. Gen Romeo Brawner Jr. assures that ground forces are ready to defend the nation from an inland invasion.
"We have been preparing already in fact in the briefing that was given earlier we are now transitioning from international security operations focus to territorial defense," Brawner told reporters on Wednesday.
"In the seminars that we have been attending internationally specifically on the land forces there is a common thing among the armies among the world. We have this common belief that eventually wars will be fought on land, so we have to be prepared and the Philippine Army can assure you that if any invaders would come near the land or inside, inland your Philippine Army is ready to defend our nation," he added.
Brawner said parts of the modernization program of the Philippine Army are geared towards external defense.
"If you look at the presentation that we had for our modernization program we are trying to get in more platforms that would enable us to defend our territory from the land for instance our 155 (mm) howitzers, our projected procurement of multi launch rocket systems and land base missile systems all of these are geared towards defending our territory," he said.
"More than the platform that we want to get in its really reorganizing our organization and training our troops to address external threat so from the mind set that we have fighting insurgent the communist terrorist the local terrorist group we are now also shifting our mindset there is a paradigm shift that is happening in the Philippine Army so that we were able to really address the threats that may come from our external environment," he added.
Just recently the AFP called the government of China "to restrain its forces" to prevent "provocative act that will endanger lives of people" after the dangerous maneuver of Chinese vessel and pointing of military-grade laser light of Chinese Coast Guard against the Philippine Coast Guard vessel supporting the rotation and resupply mission for the Philippine Navy (PN) personnel stationed in BRP Sierra Madre at the Ayungin Shoal on February 6.
Defense Secretary Carlito Galvez also said that the act recently committed by the coast guard of China is offensive and unsafe. Robina Asido/DMS
