Balikatan to go out of PH seas

As Marcos says SCS threat ‘has grown,’ must do more in defense

This year’s Balikatan joint military exercises between the Philippines and the United States will have activities outside of the country’s territorial waters for the first time.

The military made the announcement as President Marcos said the threat in the South China Sea “has grown” and the Philippines must do more to defend its territory.

“The threat has grown. And since the threat has grown, we must do more to defend our territory,” Mr. Marcos said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

The Balikatan exercises are part of efforts to enhance the military’s capabilities, including external defense.

Balikatan’s executive agent Col. Michael Logico said the joint military exercises will be conducted beyond 12 nautical miles or 22.22 kilometers off the west coast of Palawan.

“We will be utilizing the western side of Palawan, extending beyond our 12 nautical miles,” Logico said.

“So this is also a new thing. We have done group sails before but this time we will be going beyond our 12 nautical mile limitation. In previous exercises, we’ve been limited to just 12 nautical miles, now we are encouraging, or we are venturing outwards beyond that,” he added.

Logico said the area beyond 12 nautical miles is already considered international waters.

“The message that we want to send is that we are serious about defending our territory and we have allies. That’s basically it and the alliance is still going strong,” he added.

This year’s Balikatan will involve 16,000 troops, including around 11,000 US and 5,000 Philippine personnel.

Last year’s Balikatan was the largest to date, with over 17,500 combined troops from the AFP and the US military.

Despite China’s aggressive actions in the West Philippine Sea, Mr. Marcos said invoking the Mutual Defense Treaty with the US would not serve any purpose unless the threat has become “existential.”

“It does not serve any purpose to heighten tensions, to say I am invoking now the Mutual Defense Treaty. I don’t think anyone wants that unless… the effects are such that it will become an existential threat to the country,” the President said.

“It is dangerous for one to think in terms of when something goes wrong, we’ll run to Big Brother. That’s not the way we treat it at all. We do this for ourselves. we do this because we feel that we have to do it and it’s not at the behest of the United States,” Mr. Marcos added. — Charles Dantes & Vince Lopez