Marcos vows to continue past admin’s...

power and energy, among others.

The chief executive said he hopes these public infrastructure projects will help solve traffic congestion in the metro and improve connectivity in the provinces, as well as alleviate the country’s food security issues and mitigate the climate change impacts.

Earlier this month, the National Economic and

Development Authority said at least 45 of the administration’s flagship infrastructure projects will get funding from the private sector, just as what the previous administrations did.

There are already 95 ongoing projects that have been approved for implementation, while eight have gotten a go-signal from the government. Meanwhile, 47 are undergoing feasibility studies and 44 are in “preproject preparations.”

Marcos Jr. added he hopes the new projects will help boost employment in the country.

Latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that there were 2.37 million Filipinos who were jobless in January, up from the 2.22 million logged in December last year as seasonal jobs went dry. (Philstar.com))

“We will be sinking a target vessel using a combination of artillery naval gunfire and aviation weapons… We will be firing HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System), our artillery … a combination of Philippine Air Force and U.S. Air Force rockets and bombs, and our frigates,” Logico said of the sinking exercise.

The U.S. Army will also hold its first Patriot missile air-defense exercise in the country as part of a coastal defense live-fire exercise, Logico added.

Last year, the United States deployed the Patriot, which stands for “Phased Array Tracking Radar to Intercept of Target,” as part of a mobilization exercise for the Balikatan drills. It was not used for live-fire training then.

Such a weapon system, touted as one of the world’s most advanced air defense systems, was provided by the United States to Ukraine to counter Russian missile and drone attacks. It can track and shoot down incoming missiles and aircraft with a minimum flight time of less than nine seconds and can travel up to 70km to a target.

“This Balikatan seems to be designed to test operational concepts to enhance strategic deterrence posture of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in the West Philippine Sea,” Rommel Jude Ong, a former vice commander of the Philippine Navy, told the Inquirer

He said the large-scale deployment of American troops was a logistics exercise “to assess how it can rapidly deploy a large number of troops and equipment in theater.”

The sinking exercise would likewise test the Philippine Navy’s sea denial strategy, he said.

“It is premised on the idea that a land-based anti-ship missile can defend the country’s waters from any adversary’s naval shipping, even from a distance,” he pointed out.

Prelude to Balikatan

The use of the Patriot, meanwhile, would allow the AFP to understand “the need for an anti-air defense system which can protect our land and critical infrastructures from conventional ballistic threats,” Ong said.

When asked if the upcoming joint exercise could stir up China, Logico said: “We have the absolute, inalienable right to defend our territory. We are here to show that we are combat-ready.”

The defense of the Philippine archipelago from potential foreign aggressors is also the focus of the ongoing joint drills between the armies of the Philippines and the United States.

About 3,000 soldiers from the Philippine Army and the US Army are taking part in the annual “Salaknib” (shield in Ilocano) Exercise, which was first held in 2014,

The Army, the Philippine military’s largest service branch, is shifting its focus to territorial defense from insurgency amid China’s increasing assertiveness in the South China Sea.

“We will now be training on scenarios that would require us to work together to face adversaries from out of the country,” Army chief Lt. Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. said on Monday, March 13 on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of Salaknib at Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija province.

“We will focus on defense operations such as air defense and defense from the shorelines,” he added.

This year’s Salaknib, considered a prelude to the Balikatan exercises, is being conducted in two phases across northern Luzon, including Fort Magsaysay, one of the first five agreed locations under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, a deal that gives the U.S. access to Philippine bases for joint training and prepositioning of equipment. g