FOUR Chinese ships and a helicopter were spotted near the site of the multilateral maritime cooperative activity (MMCA) held by the Philippines, United States and Canada last Wednesday in the West Philippine Sea, but these did not interfere with the one-day activity.
“There were three PLA-Navy (People’s Liberation Army-Navy) ships, one oceanographic surveillance ship, and one helicopter (were) monitored from a distance during the activity,” AFP spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla said yesterday.
“The monitored PLAN and other assets did not interfere during the seventh MMCA. The exercise proceeded as planned,” she added.
The MMCA, the second this year and seventh since April last year, was conducted off northern Luzon. It began at 9:23 a.m. and ended at 4:30 p.m., she also said.
Col. Xerxes Trinidad, chief of the AFP public affairs office, said the Philippine military deployed patrol ship BRP Andres Bonifacio, a Beechcraft King Air C90 aircraft, and search and rescue assets for the activity.
He said Canada sent a frigate, HMCS Ottawa. The US was involved in the planning, pre-sail conference and monitoring of the activity.
Trinidad said the exercises included communication check exercises, division tactics, photo exercise, and expandable mobile anti-submarine training target exercise.
He also said the MMCA highlights the “critical role of collaboration in ensuring peace, stability, and security in the Indo-Pacific region.”
“It also reinforces the bonds between partner nations dedicated to mutual prosperity and the maintenance of a rules-based international order, as outlined in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,” he added.
