AFP expects China to ''behave'' during Balikatan despite rise in militia ships
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) expects China to ''behave'' even as the number of maritime militia in the West Philippine Sea increased to at least 100 ships as the Balikatan exercises between the Philippines and United States forces opened on Monday.
Commodore Roy Vincent Trinidad, Navy spokesperson, said the AFP does not expect China to interfere in the Balikatan exercises but he assures that "there are appropriate measures in place" in case if this happens.
" I expect them to behave actually this time because of the presence of the international participants for Balikatan," he told reporters in an interview in Manila,
Trinidad noted that a big increase in the number of Chinese maritime militia.
"There was a surge in the maritime militia from the previous two weeks, 69, 50 to 110 for this week so there has been a surge in the presence of the maritime militia specifically in Bajo de Masinloc and Pagasa, this coincided with the launching of Balikatan," he said.
"Our monitoring for the past two months, for March and April has given us a fairly constant, from a low of 33 to a high of 69, average around 60 various vessels of China. It is only for this week that we have seen a surge of up to, a total 124, three PLA Navy, 11 Coast Guard and 110 maritime militia," he added.
The 39th Balikatan exercise formally opened on Monday. This year's blilateral drill will also be joined by troops from Australia and France while 14 other countries including Japan will also send their representatives to observe the drills. Robina Asido/DMS
