Senate President Juan Miguel F. Zubiri said he personally favors that the BRP Sierra Madre aground in Ayungin Shoal be refurbished.
Senate President Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri (Senate PRIB Photo)
“Not just to ward off the bullies in the North but also for any possible natural calamities that may put our Marines in harms way,” he said without mentioning who the “bullies” are.
After water cannoning a resupply Coast Guard vessel in the Ayungin shoal where BRP Sierra Madre is anchored, China demanded that the rusting ship be taken off the Shoal.
The Philippines refuses because Ayungin is in the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) .
The United Nations Permanent Arbitration Court (PCA) rejected China’s “historical claim” over most parts of South China Sea, including the Philippines’ EEZ.
“If funding is requested from us in the Senate, then the Senate will gladly comply and fund it for our brave men and women of the Marines and Navy,” Zubiri said.
“They deserve our unconditional support as they sacrifice themselves for us,” he added.
BRP Sierra Madre formerly a US Navy vessel, USS Harnett County.
After the Vietnam War, Harnett County was transferred to the Philippine Navy, which named her BRP Sierra Madre (LT-57).
In 1999 the Philippine government deliberately had her run aground on Second Thomas Shoal or Ayungin Shoal in the Spratlys Islands to serve as an outpost of the Philippine Marine Corps to assert Philippine sovereignty in the country's disput with China over the ownership of the Spratly Islands.
To this day, she still serves that function.