Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. on Sunday said two Chinese jet fighters were monitored shadowing the air assets of the Philippines and Australia while flying at the vicinity of Hubo Reef in the West Philippine Sea for the ongoing conduct of Maritime Cooperative Activity.
Brawner said the jet fighters, identified as being operated by the People's Liberation Army of China, shadowed the Philippine Air Force's A29B Super Tucanos on Sunday morning while conducting a maritime air patrol with the Australian Defence Force.
Despite China's shadowing effort, Brawner said no untoward incidents, such as radio challenges, happened since the start of the Philippines-Australia's exercise of interoperability in maritime security and domain awareness in WPS.
"We are just practicing our right to conduct patrols jointly with our allies and partners in furtherance of promoting the rules-based international order, so while doing so, while doing the joint maritime and air patrols we are following the international laws, like United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea," the AFP chief underscored.
Meanwhile, AFP Public Affairs chief Col. Xerxes Trinidad said the country's MCA with the US and Australia are not directed to any foreign countries.
"This is how partners and allies actually do their interoperability exercises, especially in our maritime domain," he said.
The Philippines is already expecting China's shadowing activity, especially in WPS areas, where they assert their expanded territorial claims in the South China Sea.
"We are expecting that the PLA Navy will be doing the same, like following our participants, also monitoring our ships. We could call it shadowing, we are expecting that but we just are going to confirm the reports," Trinidad said.
Trinidad said the PAF assets continued on its flight route during the shadowing.