ARMED Forces chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr yesterday said the military cannot defend the country from external threats on its own, thus it needs help from allies.
He said the military establishment is open to holding joint patrols with the United States in the West Philippine Sea in the South China Sea.
Defense officials from the Philippines and US earlier had held discussions about holding joint patrols in the West Philippine Sea. The Philippines and the US have a Mutual Defense Treaty that requires both nations to respond to any armed attack on a metropolitan territory of either party, or on the island territories or on armed forces, public vessels or aircraft in the Pacific.
“As of now, we have no such (joint patrol with the US) arrangements. As of now, our patrols in the area are unilateral,” Brawner said.
“But we are exploring all possibilities because we know that when it comes to defending our country, we cannot really do it on our own. We really have to depend on our ally and our partners,” added Brawner.
Brawner said Armed Forces troops have been training with US forces for the country’s defense.
He said the training activities include the Balikatan exercise. The two sides held the largest Balikatan exercise last April, involving more than 17,000 US and Philippine troops.
“It’s (Balikatan) significant in terms of our joint exercises. And these exercises are not only inland… We are also doing maritime patrol exercises,” he said.
Last week, Brawner said Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian proposed to him the conduct of military exercises between the two countries. He said the proposal was “informal” and the military was going to study the offer. He noted President Marcos Jr’s statement that the Philippines is a friend to all and enemy to none.
The Philippines, China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei and Taiwan are locked in a territorial dispute over the South China Sea. China has turned aggressive in its claims in the past years and has even harassed Philippine government vessels in the West Philippine Sea.
Brawner, asked yesterday about joint exercises with China, said, “We are not closing our possibilities, our prospects because the President mentioned that we are friends to all, enemies to none.”
“We have what we call military diplomacy so we have to collaborate, have discussion with different partners… We are pursuing this because, really, our objective is to prevent war.
While we are preparing for possible war, our objective is to prevent war,” said Brawner.
Brawner also said the country needs the help of the public in defending the country. He noted the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia, in which Ukrainian civilians are playing a key role in defending their country.
“What we want to say (to public) is that your Armed Forces of the Philippines is ready to defend our country but the Armed Forces cannot do it alone,” said Brawner.
Brawner said everyone’s help is needed to defend the country.
“What we want to say to our countrymen is that the problem of defending our country is not only a problem of the military or the police or the uniformed services,” said Brawner.
“This is everyone’s problem so we have to help each other in defending our country and make it a progressive country,” the military chief added.
