Photo: Collected
The Philippine Armed Forces (AFP) has allotted part of its 2025 budget to setting up strategic military outposts to protect the country's exclusive economic zone (EEZ), AFP chief of staff Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. said on Monday (15 April).
"We're projecting our defenses up to our EEZ. And then aside from that, we are also now looking into our strategic basing," he was quoted.
The move is a part of the Philippines' Comprehensive Archipelagic Defense Concept, adopted in early March, which focuses on protecting the country's interests in the EEZ.
"So even here in our eastern seaboard, we are also taking steps to create strategic bases on the eastern seaboard, so not just west, not just north, but also east," the military official added.
Tensions over the affiliation of the waters dividing China and the Philippines have been mounting in the past months, including the March incident when the China Coast Guard used water cannons against a Philippine supply vessel, prompting criticism from the Philippines.
The territorial affiliation of some islands and reefs in the South China Sea, including the Philippine-controlled Second Thomas Shoal, has been the subject of disputes between China, the Philippines, and several other Asia-Pacific countries for decades.
In July 2016, following a lawsuit filed by the Philippines, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled that China had no grounds for territorial claims in the South China Sea. The court ruled that the islands were not disputed territory and did not constitute an exclusive economic zone, but Beijing refused to recognize or accept the ruling.
Messenger/Mumu
