Philippine military welcomes support of Japanese lawmaker
The Philippine military welcomes the recent commitment of support expressed by a member of the House of Representative of Japan who visited the country late June.
"We welcome all statements and expressions of support and any capability development that they could provide to us, whether this is from Japan, our ally, the US or other countries who would like to support us in terms of capabilities to conduct our mandate in the West Philippine Sea, these are all welcome," Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, Philippine Navy spokesman for the West Philippine Sea, said in a press conference in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City on Tuesday.
"The Philippine Navy and the armed forces have already submitted our capability development plans to higher headquarters and any other development grants from other countries will be truly welcomed," he added when asked for specific assets that Japan can provide to support the mission of the armed forces in the West Philippine Sea.
Wada Yoshiaki, a member of the House of Representatives and former Senior Advisor to the Minister of Defense stressed Japan's commitment to provide necessary assets needed by the Philippines to deter a repeat of the June 17 harassment by the China Coast Guard against Filipino Navy sailors in Ayungin Shoal.
"Japan and the Philippines should work together to make sure that such incidents in the West Philippine Sea should not happen any further. To do so, Japan is committed and ready to provide necessary assets to the Philippines … protect the Philippines," he said.
"Having seen the incident on 17th June and all sorts of ... in the West Philippine Sea, they are really, the act of piracy, we condemn such activities by China. And the support we can provide will be like defense assets, defense training, also supply chain, any... assistance that the Philippines may need we will try our best to provide," he added.
Trinidad also stress the importance of the signing of the reciprocal access agreement (RAA) between Japan and Philippines "not only for the armed forces but for the country."
"This will be a very historic activity considering that the international community now understands a broad united front has to be put in placed in order to check any attempts to disrupt the rules-based international order. It is not just a battle of the Philippines, but for other countries as well because the international law should prevail," he said.
Trinidad noted that the recent incident in Ayungin Shoal was "the most aggressive action" of China "in the recent history".
"This particular June 17 incident was deliberate, it was planned, it was escalatory, it was the most shall I say aggressive action ever conducted by the agents of aggression of the Chinese communist party in the West Philippine Sea," he said.
"These are the most aggressive actions in the recent history, this is again a microcosm of China's illegal presence, their actions are all illegal, coercive and deceptive, the reason why are calling this out is because we don't want any unintended consequence. These illegal actions increase the risk of miscalculation and we don't get to that point," he added.
Following the June 17 incident, AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. demanded China to return the firearms and equipment they took from the troops during the harassment, Trinidad confirmed that the demand was already coordinated but there was no feedback yet regarding the matter.
"It has been communicated to the appropriate government agency we are awaiting feedback from them," he said.
He also noted a drastic reduction of Chinese vessels monitored in the West Philippine Sea in the past week.
"We don't want to speculate on the reduction, suffice it to say we have monitored a reduction on a week to week basis of our monitoring, for whatever reason this will be subject to further assessments," he added.
AFP spokesperson Col. Francel Padilla said the monitored presence of Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea has reduced to 95 (on June 25 to July 1) from 129 (on June 19 to 24).
"On territorial defense operations or the West Philippine Sea, for the period covering June 19 to 24, 2024 we have a total of 129 Chinese vessels monitored in the area, broken down to 14 Chinese Coast Guard vessel (CCGV), five People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), and 110 Chinese Maritime Militia vessels (CMMV)," she said.
"On June 25 to 01 July, 2024 we have a total of 95 vessels broken down to 13 CCGV, 8PLAN and 76 Chinese MMV," she added. Robina Asido/DMS
