Phl-US exercises in WPS canceled due to “operational necessities”

The Armed Forces of the Philippines on Wednesday confirmed that the execution of the country's maritime air exercises with the United States as part of their joint maritime cooperative activity in the West Philippine Sea was canceled due to "operational necessities."

These canceled drills include the execution of a joint photo exercise, the Philippines-US formation at sea, the gunnery exercise, cross-deck or personnel transfer exercises, and the Officer of the Watch (OW) maneuvers.

"Unfortunately, all the activities were canceled itong atin (these) maritime cooperative activities with the US. I got a word that even today's activity will be canceled due to operational necessities of the US forces," Vice Admiral Alberto Carlos, AFP-Western Command chief, told reporters onboard the BRP Gregorio del Pilar.

Originally, the first day of MCA was scheduled for Tuesday, 2 January but was delayed for the following day.

The next day, WesCom's BRP Gregorio del Pilar (PS-15) was able to hold a unilateral exercise with the Northern Luzon's BRP Ramon Alcaraz (PS-16) as well as the BRP Davao del Sur (LD-602), that involves standard communication checks and joint maritime patrol.

"We are doing unilateral exercise. The Philippine forces ships that we're here already, we are doing the maneuver. Some were serials on our own unilaterally. Then tomorrow, I was told na tuloy pa rin naman yung distinguish visitor visit sa carrier," said Carlos.

Later in the afternoon, the Philippine Navy vessels successfully conducted a passing exercise with USS Sterret (DDG 104).

During the maritime patrol, the crew of the Philippine Navy's BRP Gregorio del Pilar monitored and detected the People's Liberation Army Navy vessel 570 around 6:04 a.m., followed by the PLAN vessel 174 around 7:37 a.m. northwest of Cabra Island, Lubang, Occidental Mindoro.

The Filipino crew radio challenged three times both the Chinese vessels entering the MCA operational box inside the Philippine exclusive economic zone.

However, only China's PLAN vessel 570 has counter-challenged.

The waters off Lubang were chosen to be the exercise venue for the MCA as it is an "ideal place for maritime training activities," said Carlos.

"This is usually a clear area, open space in the middle, middle of NOLCOM and the WESCOM area, so this is an ideal place for training activities like this," he noted.