PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Philippines - The country’s newest naval warship, which made a port of call here at the Palawan capital on Monday following its first patrol mission around the areas being claimed by the Philippines in the disputed Spratly islands, in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), held a one-day “open house” on Tuesday.
Local residents were encouraged to have a closer view of the Hamilton-class cutter docked at the Naval facility beside the commercial port area during the open house.
Commissioned into the Philippine naval service in December following its acquisition from the United States, the naval war ship boasted of long range patrolling capability and surveillance facilities otherwise unavailable to other Philippine naval vessels and is regarded by defense authorities as a milestone in upgrading the country’s military capability in the tension-filled Spratlys region.
Naval Forces West commanding officer Joseph Rostum Peña announced in a press conference Monday at the BRP Gregorio del Pilar (PF 15) the war ship’s completion of “a successful 12-day sovereignty patrol” of what Manila had called the West Philippine Sea.
The patrol also included the Camago-Malampaya gas field, which hosted the country’s lone natural gas extraction facility, and the Balabac Strait adjacent to the Malaysian maritime border, said Peña.
“This ship was more capable and had more endurance than any of our other naval ships,” he said.
Peña added that the Navy has been working to further upgrade the ship’s defensive capabilities with the installation, “hopefully soon,” of its own missile system.
He added, however, that the country’s naval capability in the Spratlys still paled in comparison with China and some of the other claimant countries in the region.
“Compared to other navies, our weapons system is not yet at par. In the next acquisition, we expected sister ships for PF 15 that would have some of the more advanced weapons and missile systems,” he said.
The naval officers described the ship’s main capability in monitoring all naval activities around the area, where it operated, mainly through the use of a computer-based identification system.
Capt. Alberto Cruz, the vessel’s commanding officer, said they did not encounter any incident of unauthorized foreign intrusion in the Philippine-claimed areas during their patrol mission.
“So far, we did not monitor any intrusion, except for the usual merchant ships that plied the area,” said Cruz.
Peña admitted, however, that they were careful to keep a distance from other islets being claimed by China and other nations in the disputed area.
“We distanced ourselves from the other occupied islands. The other countries did the same. The South China Sea was a vital sea lane where you could find so many commercial ships, including our Filipino fishermen,” he said.
“We didn’t go very near (the other islands not claimed by the Philippines) so as not to provoke other countries,” he added.
Dipetik dari - Inquirer Global Nation
Taiwan's beacon on Spratlys may stoke tensions
Taiwan will soon build a tactical air navigation system on one of the Spratly Islands, in a move that could reignite tensions in the South China Sea.
The flight-guiding system will be built on the runway on Taiping Islet, the largest of the Spratlys archipelago, a military spokesman said yesterday.
"The building of the system is solely to help increase the safety of landing and take-off by transport planes, and has nothing to do with any weapon," said Luo Shou-he, defence ministry spokesman.
He dismissed news reports speculating that the building of the facility was part of a plan for co-operation between Taiwan and the US on military surveillance to gather intelligence about movements by the PLA and the forces of the Philippines, Vietnam and other claimants to South China Sea territory.
The potentially oil-rich archipelago, made up of more than 750 tiny islets, is claimed in part or wholly by Taiwan, mainland China, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. Taiwan, which holds Taiping Islet, has maintained a 1,200-metre airstrip built in 2006.
Ministry officials said the system, centred around a seven-metre-high beacon, will send off signals for transport planes, mainly Hercules C-130s, approaching the airstrip. They said the facility was highly necessary, as currently pilots had to make visual contact for landing and flights had to be aborted on misty days.
The officials said a building contract had already been awarded and construction would start this month, with official operation expected to start in September.
Tensions have been on the rise since March last year, with the PLA and Vietnam and Philippine forces staging drills around the waters to demonstrate their claims over the territory.
Since June, Beijing has several times called for co-operation with Taipei to deal jointly with the issue, only to be rebuffed by Taipei.
Taiwan used to deploy troops on Taiping, but later replaced them with coastguards in an attempt to reduce the tension.
To avoid being sidelined in the issue and to increase its visibility, Taiwan, which has repeatedly stressed its claim to sovereignty in the South China Sea, sent a group of academics to Taiping aboard a naval vessel in July to conduct academic research.
In September, Taiwan also sent a group of officials to Taiping to install a solar panel system to renew the electricity generation system there.
Taiwan's military also agreed in September to help the coastguard beef up its security on Taiping by replacing its obsolete defensive deployments with better ones.
Dipetik dari - South China Morning Post
Lagi posting berkaitan,
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