AFP: No other foreign combat patrol amid MMCA in WPS

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said it did not monitor any foreign combat patrol in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) while it was conducting a multilateral maritime activity with its counterparts from Japan, Australia, and the United States last Sunday. 

In a press conference in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City on Monday, AFP chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. emphasized that the MMCA was successfully conducted. 

"We were able to achieve all the objectives that we have set forth, including the anti-submarine warfare exercise that we conducted," he said. 

The military chief seemed to downplay China's claims that it was able to put "all military activities that mess up the situation in the South China Sea and created hotspots are under control," on the same day that the MMCA was held. 

However, the China military did not give further details about its activities. 

Brawner confirmed that the People's Liberation Army (PLA) navy vessels, with bow number 162 (destroyer ship) and 5792, were seen during the conduct of MMCA, but he noted these ships did not make any maneuver to block the four participating nations during the multilateral drills. 

The China military, in a statement earlier, claimed the "Chinese PLA Southern Theater Command organized a joint naval and air strategic patrol in the South China Sea on 7 April."

However, Brawner said they did not monitor any untoward action from the part of Chinese ships, which were sighted six nautical miles away from the MMCA exercise area, off the coast of Busuanga, Palawan. 

"We heard that China conducted their combat patrols in the area but as far as our monitoring, we have not seen one so we are saying that while we were conducting our own exercises in the West Philippine Sea, we only monitored the presence of two PLA navy ships, but no combat patrol," he said.

Brawner sees the presence of Chinese ships "not really alarming."

"We expect this already, because in any activity that we do in the West Philippine Sea, they're always there, so we have been expecting this but we have made sure that [our MCA] will be successful with no injuries, no aggressive actions happened," he said. 

'Not a show of force'

Meanwhile, Brawner underscored that the newly completed MMCA is "not a show of force" against any country.

"We are doing the exercises number one for interoperability to show that we can operate with other like-minded armed forces and also to enhance our own capability," he said. 

"Actually, the MCAs were part of discussions with our partners about two years ago, they began at that time. And it first started with our ally, and then it ballooned into what we had last weekend, our Multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity with Quadrilateral Exercises," Department of National Defense (DND) spokesperson Arsenio Andolong said in a separate interview with defense reporters.

He explained the country's maritime cooperative activity with other countries was conducted to promote diplomatic and geopolitical relations. 

"So in this particular exercise, the objective was to strengthen our cooperative activities with our partners, essentially our ally, the US, in this instance, Japan and Australia and we wanted to strengthen our regional and international cooperation with them, and of course enhance our interoperability," he said. 

The Philippines has a Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the US and Australia, he noted. 

"[This] particular MCA was aimed at promoting a free, open, and stable Indo-Pacific," he added. 

The MMCA assets include the BRP Gregorio Del Pilar (PS15) with AW109 helicopter, BRP Antonio Luna (FF151) with AW159 Wildcat ASW helicopter, and BRP Valentin Diaz (PS177) from the Philippine Navy; the USS Mobile and a P-8A Poseidon from the United States Navy; the Royal Australian Navy HMAS Warramunga and Royal Australian Air Force P-8A Poseidon Maritime Patrol Aircraft; and the JS Akebono from the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Forces.