SEN. Imee Marcos yesterday questioned the presence of more US military aircraft in Manila and Palawan as she urged the military to determine if they are part of Washington’s covert military flights.
Armed Forces spokesman Col. Medel Aguilar said the military “ will discuss this issue at the proper venue.”
Marcos, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, cited data from flight tracker Global AirNav Systems that said that at 6:03 a.m. on Friday, a US Air Force C-17 with flight code MC244 / RCH244 landed in Manila after leaving the Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, then flew to Palawan before 1 p.m. and headed for Yokota Air Base in the city of Fussa, Japan later in the afternoon.
She said although the plane’s call signal was repeatedly out of coverage during its journey, flight tracker Flightradar24 recorded its departure from Palawan shortly before 4 p.m. and its arrival at Yokota Air Base at around 9:30 p.m., Japan time.
“The flight route from Palawan showed the plane passing over Pampanga, Cagayan, and off the eastern coasts of Batanes and Taiwan before it landed at the Yokota Air Base,” she said in a statement.
She added that passengers on commercial flights to and from Manila’s international airport noticed two US military planes near the runway and shared pictures with her office.
On Saturday, Marcos said, another C-17 (flight code RCH323) that took off from Tokyo the night before was spotted north of Busuanga in Palawan at past 10 a.m. and was off the radar until late afternoon when it again appeared in the same vicinity flying toward Polillo Island before exiting the Philippine territory past 6 p.m.
“Too little is known about ongoing US military activity in our territory while we constantly call out the presence of Chinese vessels in the South China Sea,” the presidential sister said.
“I am aware of ongoing exercises with foreign militaries this month. But the same zeal in tracking any violations in our maritime territory and exclusive economic zone must also apply where Philippine air traffic rules and joint military agreements with the US are concerned,” she added.
Marcos also called on Philippine military, defense, and foreign affairs officials to determine if covert US military flights aggravated the already tense situation in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait and to weigh the risks to public safety.
The foreign relations committee has held a hearing after a similar US transport aircraft landed in Manila but which US flight planners failed to coordinate beforehand with ground controllers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. — With Raymond Africa
