By Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio, Reporter
THE Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Tuesday said US Defense Secretary Peter Brian Hegseth’s visit to Manila reaffirms the US’ “ironclad” commitment to its oldest treaty ally in Asia.
“This visit reaffirms what our ally, the US, has long been saying — that their commitment to supporting us and strengthening our alliances with them is ironclad,” military spokesperson Francel Margareth Padilla-Taborlupa told a news briefing in Filipino.
The Philippine military did not say whether Mr. Hegseth would visit military camps, including joint Philippine-US military sites, during his engagement.
“These items will be discussed further with the Defense department as they coordinate for the particular visit of the US secretary of Defense,” Xerxes A. Trinidad, chief of the AFP’s Public Affairs Office, told the same briefing.
Mr. Hegseth will visit the Philippines on March 28 to 29 for a meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. and Defense Secretary Gilberto C. Teodoro, Jr., with talks expected to center on advancing Manila and Washington’s defense ties, the US Embassy in Manila said in a statement last week.
The US Defense chief’s trip to the Philippines comes on the heels of his tour to Hawaii and Guam, where he would meet military leaders overseeing the Pacific region. He will also visit Japan, another Asian ally of the US that has been at odds with China over Senkaku Islands.
China claims more than 80% of the South China Sea based on a 1940s map, which a United Nations-backed arbitration court voided in 2016 for being illegal.
The Philippines and China have repeatedly clashed in the South China Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, due to overlapping claims over disputed maritime features.
Manila has been at the forefront of efforts to contest Beijing’s expansive sea claim, forging deeper security ties with western countries and regional allies like Japan and Australia.
Meanwhile, the AFP said it would welcome the deployment of another American-made Typhon missile launcher in the Philippines should the US send another one.
“The more, the merrier,” Ms. Taborlupa said, reacting to speculations that the US had shipped a second unit of the midrange missile system to the Philippines. A March 18 report by Defense News said the US Army is preparing the deployment of another Typhon battery in the Pacific region.
The Typhon system can launch missiles, including SM-6 missiles and Tomahawks with a range exceeding 1,600 kilometers, capable of reaching the Chinese mainland. It was flown to the Philippines in April last year and has since drawn sharp criticism from Beijing.
The People’s Daily, the newspaper of the governing Communist Party, has urged the Philippines to give up the Typhon missile system, which was deployed by US forces to the Philippines as part of joint military exercises to keep the peace in the region.
Deploying another Typhon missile battery in the Philippines is not intended to escalate tensions in the region, Philippine Navy Rear Admiral Roy Vincent T. Trinidad said.
“The defense posture of the Republic of the Philippines is not designed against any other country,” he said at the Tuesday’s briefing. “We have been abiding by the rules-based international order.”
FA-50 GREENLIGHTAlso on Tuesday, the Philippine Air Force said it might lift an order that grounded its FA-50 fleet, allowing it again to conduct patrols in the South China Sea, air force spokesperson Ma. Consuelo N. Castillo told the same news briefing.
“We are committed to bringing this fleet back to full operational status very soon, hopefully within this week so they can get back to their essential missions of maritime patrol and airspace security,” she said.
The air force grounded its 11 FA-50 jets, the most advanced fighter plane in its arsenal, after one crashed in southern Philippines early this month.
The Philippines bought 12 Korean-made FA-50 light fighter jets for a total of P18.9 billion in 2014 as part of efforts to modernize its aging military arsenal amid sea tensions with China.
Ms. Castillo said the air force is waiting for the findings of the crashed jet’s data analysis before giving the fleet the greenlight to fly again.
Philippine airmen would also be sent as observers to a joint military exercise between Australian and US forces in late March, she said.
“The Philippine Air Force will participate in the Talisman Sabre 2025, which is a biennial joint military exercise hosted by Australia, in partnership with the United States,” Ms. Castillo said. “Nineteen Philippine Air Force officers and enlisted personnel will be present as spectators, allowing them to observe and gain valuable insights into large-scale multinational operations.”
Exercise Talisman Sabre is the largest military exercise between Australia and the US, comparable to the Balikatan (shoulder-to-shoulder) exercise between Philippine and US forces.
The Australian war games will take place on March 29 to April 5, Ms. Consuelo said.
