Top officials of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Joint United States Military Advisory Group (JUSMAG) met on Monday, April 12, and discussed strategies and plans of action in the West Philippine Sea amid the aggressive assertion of claims by China in the disputed areas.
AFP chief of staff Gen. Cirilito Sobejana presided over the meeting which was attended by JUSMAG officials led by Col. Stephen Ma, chief of JUSMAG Philippines, at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.
"The discussions centered on how the Philippines and the United States armed forces can manage and respond to the situation in the Philippine EEZ ," said AFP spokesman Major Gen. Edgard Arevalo.
Arevalo did not provide specific details but he noted that the AFP and JUSMAG agreed "to continue to have subsequent meetings" in the future. He described the meeting as fruitful.
On Sunday, Sobejana said that he would meet with the JUSMAG to discuss the Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) between the Philippines and United States.
"Isa sa mga pag-u-usapan natin 'yong ating Mutual Defense Treaty kung saan nagtutulungan ang dalawang bansa on matters pertaining to security (Among the things that we will discuss is the Mutual Defense Treaty where two nations help each other on matters pertaining to security)," Sobejana said.
Signed in 1951, the MDT states that Manila and Washington will support each other if an external party attacks either of the two allied countries.
Sobejana further stated that he will also raise to JUSMAG the suggestion of Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. to make provisions in the MDT and include harassment against civilian vessels as one of the factors that will trigger the accord.
Article V of the MDT, however, states that an armed attack on either of the Parties "is deemed to include an armed attack on the metropolitan territory of either of the Parties, or on the island territories under its jurisdiction in the Pacific Ocean, its armed forces, public vessels or aircraft in the Pacific."
Sobejana said the proposal to include attacks on civilian vessels was raised after the reported chase down of a Chinese Coast Guard vessel and two Chinese missile attack craft on a Philippine civilian boat carrying a news team from ABSCBN near Ayungin Shoal in the West Philippine Sea.
The Chinese military and Coast Guard's chase on the civilian vessel inside the country's EEZ was the most recent development in the deepening maritime tension between Manila and Beijing.
China's hostile acts came after Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana protested the presence of around 220 Chinese vessels at the Julian Felipe Reef in the WPS last month, saying that this could be a prelude to their possible occupation and militarization of islands and reefs located inside the Philippines' EEZ.