War is not in the table for the Philippines: Malaya
Despite the series of maritime patrols in the West Philippine Sea and a coming military exercise with allied countries, a National Security Council official assures that "war is not in the table" for the Philippines.
"I know most of our people are worried because you know we see things like there will be war, we see things that you know this is a proxy war. War is not on the table, let me just make that very clear," NSC Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya said in a news forum in Quezon City on Saturday.
"War is not one of the instruments of national policy of the Philippines. Just because we have Balikatan doesn’t mean we’re going to go to war. The only way to preserve peace is to have a strong deterrence capability," he added.
Malaya explained that many countries expressed interest to conduct military exercises with the Philippines to support us in our objectives to maintain freedom of navigation and assure an open Indo Pacific region through the adherence to international law.
However, Malaya noted that the Philippine is not accepting the help of allied countries to enter into a war.
"We are exhausting all diplomatic options to resolve this issue. We wish a constructive dialogue with the People’s Republic of China. But defending, improving our defenses and improving the capacity of our forces through exercises and joint patrols and what not ever does not mean that we are going to war," he said.
"We have no intention of precipitating any form of war with anyone," he added.
Following the series of maritime cooperative activities with allied countries like the US, Australia and Japan. The Philippines is also set to begin its largest bilateral military exercises with the US dubbed as Balikatan next week.
Aside from US and Philippine forces, Balikatan 2024 will also be joined by troops from Australia and France, while 14 other countries including Japan will also come to observe the drills. Robina Asido/DMS
