MANILA – Naval and air force units from the Philippines, Australia, Japan, and the United States are conducting the 6th Multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity (MMCA) within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) this Wednesday (05 Feb 2025).

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. stated that the exercise highlights the nations’ commitment to regional cooperation and a free and open Indo-Pacific.

The MMCA aims to enhance interoperability between the armed forces of the participating countries.

Brawner emphasized that the exercise adheres to international law, ensuring the safety of navigation and respecting maritime rights under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

The exercise, which began today, is taking place in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), though the exact details of the locations and participating forces remain undisclosed.

ia/mnm

By Liezelle Soriano

MANILA — With the signed Free Trade Agreement between the Philippines and ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand, better opportunities arise for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the Philippines.

“We are pleased to inform you, Excellencies, that the Philippines has recently signed the second protocol to the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA),” President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. announced.

Marcos expressed optimism that the AANZFTA would support regional initiatives aimed at enhancing supply chain resilience, promoting trade and investment, inclusivity, and sustainable development, while also addressing the dynamic, multifaceted challenges in the business environment.

“The Protocol will indeed benefit micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) as it facilitates their participation in international trade by improving their access to markets, global value chains, and promoting e-commerce,” Marcos highlighted.

“With the momentum from the CEO Forum on Wednesday (06 March 2024), and AANZFTA together with the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement, we are confident that we will usher in even more robust economic cooperation within our region and provide a legal framework for a more prosperous future,” he added.

He also welcomed Australia’s Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040.

(el Amigo/MNM)

By Junex Doronio

MANILA — Just like the Boy Scout motto: “Be always prepared,” the Philippines and its reliable neighbor-friend Australia have announced the start of joint air and sea patrols within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ), confirming the “strategic partnership” that President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed last September this year.

On Sunday, the President warned that the Chinese military had “started to show interest” in building bases on reefs that were “closer and closer to the Philippine coastline.”

This warning came on the heels of the announcement made on Saturday, November 25, by Australia and the Philippines regarding the start of joint air and sea patrols off the Southeast Asian nation.

Marcos Jr. said the joint patrols were “a practical manifestation of the growing and deepening strategic and defense partnership between our countries.”

“We endeavor to enhance bilateral interoperability in maritime security and domain awareness,” the President said on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

It was learned that the Philippines will deploy two navy vessels and five surveillance aircraft to join Australia’s HMAS Toowoomba warship and a P-8A maritime surveillance aircraft.

Department of National Defense (DND) Arsenio Andolong clarified that the maritime patrols will be held inside the Philippines’ EEZ.

The joint air and sea patrols were aimed at deepening their defense cooperation to counter China’s assertiveness in the region.

Noticeably, the “maritime cooperative activity” came days after the United States held a similar exercise with the Philippines in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost entirely with what it calls the internationally unrecognized nine-dash line.

In a joint statement, the Australian and Philippine defense chiefs said the three-day patrols showed their “shared commitment to exercising freedom of navigation and overflight consistent with international law.”

(ai/mnm)

Positively Filipino image courtesy

“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.

IT’S A GOOD THING that on Monday, August 14, Monday, Australia sent its largest warship — HMAS Canberra — to the Philippines to take part in joint exercises with U.S. and Filipino forces.

“The South China Sea has been an area of tension now for many, many years. We have continued to conduct our operations and activities and exercises with allies and partners safely and securely despite those tensions. So, I’m not particularly concerned about this deployment any more so than any of the other deployments that we do,” Vice Admiral Mark Hammond, Australia’s Chief of Navy, said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Meanwhile, a joint maritime patrol agreement between the Philippines and the United States is expected to be launched before the year 2023 ends.

For me, it’s really very important that all democratic nations on this planet must unite and fight for peace.

It’s also a race against time to repair and reinforce the BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal which has been the symbol of our sovereignty and defiance to superbully China.

To recall, the Philippine Navy intentionally grounded BRP Sierra Madre at Ayungin Shoal in 1999 during the time of former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada to reinforce Manila’s sovereignty claim in the Spratly Islands. Ayungin Shoal is located within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.

But Beijing insists that the majority of the South China Sea, including parts that Manila calls the West Philippine Sea, as its own, using a “nine-dash line” on maps that an international arbitration ruling in 2016 declared has no legal basis.

Former Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio recently revealed that under China’s new coast guard law, Chinese Coast Guard vessels are authorized to fire their weapons on foreign vessels and to forcibly dismantle structures, that encroach on China’s nine-dash line claim.

He explained that this means that structures erected by other states on islands claimed by China, like those in the Spratlys, such as the beached BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal, can be demolished by Chinese coast guard vessels under this new coast guard law.

This is indeed worrisome considering the possibility that Ayungin Shoal could serve as a flashpoint of a war that we always dread happening.

That’s why the urgent need to fortify the BRP Sierra Madre.

“It’s vulnerable not just because of how few people are there and their inability to defend themselves but the fact that their outpost is deteriorating and will ultimately succumb to time and the weather and the elements,” thus rightly observed Security expert and former United States Air Force official Col. Raymond Powell.

He further explained: “That will happen unless the Philippines and its US allies are able to come up with some other solution to repairing or replacing, somehow lifting, circumventing, and defeating the ongoing Chinese blockade.”

I agree with Powell that one of the leverages the Philippines could use against China’s social-imperialism that its former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping once predicted would be our country’s partnership with like-minded allies.

Indeed, in these proverbial times that try men’s souls, we need our democratic allies like the United States, Australia, Japan, and many others to help the Philippines fortify the BRP Sierra Madre and, at the same time, acquire more arms and equipment to deter China from eventually occupying the Ayungin Shoal. (ai/mnm)