DEFENSE Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr yesterday said the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has shifted its focus to external from internal defense amid Chinese aggression in the West Philippine Sea.
“The major shift would be a focus on external defense or territorial defense,” Teodoro said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel when asked what changes or improvements the Marcos administration has done in the last three years.
“As you know, the President’s statements were, we would be unyielding and resistant to Chinese aggression in the West Philippine Sea,” he added.
The past administrations have been focused on internal security operations or the campaign against local threat groups, including the New People’s Army.
“We’ve been gearing up towards that (territorial defense) mission… Now, we need to cover 2 million square kilometers of maritime domain. This remains a goal that we are trying to achieve in terms of structure, people, systems and capabilities,” Teodoro said.
The Armed Forces is implementing a modernization program that calls for the acquisition of modern assets, including warships and fighter planes.
“A big shift also have been our international engagements. As you know, we have been very proactive, together with our other partner security agencies, in getting an alliance to uphold international law and UNCLOS (United Nations on the Law of the Sea),” said Teodoro.
“A major part for us, for our national interest, is to resist the Chinese claims,” said Teodoro, referring to China’s now 10-dash line claim in the South China Sea.
With increased US military assistance to the Philippines, he said, the country “will be more interoperable” with the US.
Teodoro also said the Armed Forces will also have “more secure command and control systems because our vulnerability and our data storage and communications can stand a lot of improvement.”
“We also will see an upgrade of our existing systems because a lot of our existing ships are not fully weaponized, so to speak. So we will also upgrade those,” he said.
Teodoro noted the US and the Philippines have been conducting military exercises in the West Philippine Sea.
He said these exercises are being calibrated to avoid an “actual conflict” in the area, apparently referring to a possible conflict with China.
“I think it is also a function of responsibility of the government to maintain that balance. It’s a difficult balance,” he said
“And might I say too that this is a struggle, a long-term struggle that we have to gear the country for and we have to be firm in our positions, coupled with the legal side,” said Teodoro.
He noted the 2016 ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration that invalidated China’s excessive claim in the South China and affirmed the Philippines’ rights to its 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone.
