Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD: Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has said that his country’s troops’ main mission has changed to ensure its soil’s protection as disputes with China and US-China rivalry intensify.
The president stressed the urgency of shifting the troops’ focus to external defense in a speech before security forces Monday afternoon. He spoke on the topic two weeks after summoning the Chinese ambassador to protest the use of a military-grade laser by China’s coast guard that briefly blinded some of the staff of a Philippine patrol boat in the South China Sea.
The Philippines condemned the 6 February incident in one of the more than two hundred diplomatic protests it has filed against China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the disputed waterway since 2022.
China claims South China Sea in entirity
China has accused that the Philippines was intruding into its territory so its coast guard used a harmless laser to track their vessel. China claims the South China Sea virtually in its entirety.
Marcos said that for many years the Philippines was able to maintain that understanding and peace with all of its neighbors. Now things have started to change, and it must adjust accordingly.
The president said that the Philippines’ boundaries are being put into question, so the air force has a very important mission to fully secure the country.
