The Armed Forces of the Philippines is aware of the passage of China’s aircraft carrier and its coast guard’s “monster” ship in the waters near the West Philippine Sea. 

AFP spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla said the military organization has the necessary equipment to track and monitor all assets passing near the country’s maritime domain, including air spaces. 

“We should not misconstrue all of these things to be part of anything that would compromise our national security,” Padilla said in a press conference at Camp Aguinaldo on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, Philippine Navy spokesperson for the WPS, explained that foreign ships are allowed to conduct an innocent passage under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) Article 19, so long as it is not prejudicial to the peace, good order, or security of the coastal State.

“They are authorized under UNCLOS either through freedom of navigation or right of innocent passage,” he noted.

Trinidad said the “Philippine Navy and the Armed Forces will continue monitoring the vast expanse of our maritime domain.”

Relatedly, AFP chief General Romeo Brawner Jr. said the Philippines has issued at least 50,000 challenges against vessels passing the country’s territorial waters and exclusive economic zone.

Brawner said the military can monitor any aircraft and ships “illegally” entering the Philippines’ airspace and territorial waters. 

“We can track these aircraft air entering in our defense identification zone,” he noted. 

“In fact, for this year alone we already have 50,000 challenges issued against vessels passing through our international waters that were covered by our exclusive economic zone, as well as our internal waters,” Brawner said in an interview over the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon’s pre-SONA special on stream live on Tuesday.

Brawner noted some concerned vessels responded to the challenges and some did not. 

“So we continue to monitor in the WPS,” he said, stressing that some parts of the Philippine waters are considered an international maritime highway. The reason why so many maritime, commercial, and even warships usually pass through these areas.

Brawner sees no problem with the passage of the China Coast Guard’s monster ship.

“Daanan naman po talaga, because we also respect the freedom of navigation and overflight and that’s what we want to convey to our neighbors here in the region—is that we have to maintain that, that freedom of navigation and overflight,” he said. 

Brawner stressed around 60 percent of the world trade passes through the South China Sea.