Amid reports of harassment and incursion, the presence of suspected spies, cyberattacks tied to Chinese hackers, illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO) operations linked to criminal activities, and the discovery of underwater drones, among others, China is beating the Philippines black and blue as part of a broader strategy to assert its claims in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), a Philippine Navy (PN) official disclosed Monday, Feb. 3.
For Rear Adm. Roy Vincent Trinidad, PN spokesperson for WPS, a whole-of-nation approach is needed to resist China’s strategy.
“What we should look at is that we are being, shall I say, battered across the different instruments of national power, politically, economically, socio-culturally, militarily. Even on the law enforcement side,” he said in a television interview over ANC.
The Navy admiral pointed out how the China Coast Guard (CCG) has maintained its presence off the coast of Zambales for a month now, but thanks to the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), they have been kept at a far distance. The presence of CCG vessels was first monitored by the PCG on Jan. 4, and they continue to loiter off Zambales’ coast at present.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and PCG have also repeatedly accused Chinese ships of harassing Philippine vessels in the WPS, especially during resupply missions to Ayungin Shoal, although a provisional agreement between the two countries’ governments has helped in pacifying the situation in recent months.
Trinidad also called out a local chief executive who was “found out to have a dubious background,” last year, alluding to jailed former Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo. This also resulted in the total ban of POGO operations by President Marcos Jr., affecting the country in an economic sense.
On the environmental side, Trinidad said Chinese nationals were caught engaged in black sand mining without approved documents, while on the sociocultural aspect, Chinse nationals who have been living in the country for several years were accused of being “sleeper cell spies”.
The Navy is also in possession of five underwater drones which were found in different parts of the country. Trinidad said the gliders were used to map out the terrain of the country’s waters.
“So there are different efforts to, shall I say, put us on a higher footing to make us more alert,” Trinidad said.
To address this, Trinidad said the AFP has shifted its focus from internal security to external defense.
“Right now, with the shift that we are doing to external defense, our systems and procedures have also shifted. We already are looking at the bigger picture which would include our internal processes [on] how to safeguard not only physical security for our establishments but cyber, communications, human security,” he said.