More complex PH-US drills Next year’s Balikatan to evolve amid growing threats in the region

n By VINCE LOPEZ

More complex and challenging Balikatan military exercises are likely on the table next year, US Ambassador to the Philippines MaryKay Carlson said Saturday as she acknowledged growing “threats” to the region, including “challenges to the rules-based international order through provocations in the West Philippine Sea.”

“What happens here is critical to what happens in the Indo-Pacific region,” she said “We’ve seen some threats to this region, probably more in the last several years.”

Carlson noted that this year’s military exercises that gathered some 17,000 Filipino, American and Australian troops, was “absolutely the most complex we have ever done.”

“Interoperability is hard... They will continue to make the complexity even more challenging because that is what we need to do to meet the challenges of the real world. We can expect the complexities to grow,” she said.

The ambassador said it is important for both countries to “strengthen our alliance so that we are better able to respond” to challenges in the region.

Amid tensions in the West Philippine Sea, US President Joe Biden is expected to

AFP: Sovereignty patrols in WPS to continue

THE Armed Forces of the Philippines will continue with its sovereignty patrols after a Chinese coast guard ship caused a near-collision with a Philippine Coast Guard vessel Sunday last week.

PCG spokesman on the WPS Commodore Jay Tarriela, for his part, said the maritime patrol “did not undermine the interests of other states.” reaffirm Washington’s continuous support for Manila during President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s visit next week.

Tarriela, however, upheld that the PCG was “under no obligation to request permission from other nations” when patrolling the waters near Ayungin Shoal.

“I’m certain that at their meeting at the White House, President Biden will reaffirm the strong friendship between our two countries. We are not only friends, partners and allies, we are family… Those connections are deep and they are very, very strong,” Carlson said. President Marcos Jr. will leave for Washington today (Sunday afternoon) United States on Sunday afternoon for his 1st official working visit as President of the Philippines and is set to meet Biden at the White House on May 1.

DFA spokesperson Teresita Daza said Mr. Marcos will be in the US until May 4 for his official visit, after which he will proceed to London for the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla.

18,000 cops to be deployed as protests set on Labor Day

“Our chief PNP, Gen. Benjamin Acorda, Jr., gave instructions that we exercise maximum tolerance and that our paramount consideration should be respect for human rights and freedom of expression and speech,” said Philippine National Police spokesperson Col. Jean Fajardo over ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo.

DIGNITY IN LABOR. File

Acorda made the deployment of more policemen, two days after Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. tapped the PNP and local chief executives to ensure public safety during on Labor Day. Various workers’ organizations are set to hold protest rallies Monday to demand a wage increase, end contractualization, and the full recognition of the right to freely unionize.

The PCG also rejected Beijing’s claim that the Philippine ship’s “premeditated and provocative action” caused the near-collision, saying it was a “routine maritime patrol.”

“As for the AFP, we will continue our maritime patrols, our sovereignty patrols, especially in our territorial waters within our exclusive economic zone,” military spokesman Col. Medel Aguilar said.

Aguilar, however, said the AFP will leave it up to the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea, headed by National Security Adviser Eduardo Año, to make policy statements on the issue.

“The routine, seven-day maritime patrol carried out by the Philippine Coast Guard in the West Philippine Sea from April 18 to 24 was non-provocative,”

Tarriela said on his personal Twitter account.

Last Sunday, a larger Chinese coast guard vessel blocked PCG vessel BRP Malapascua, which was carrying journalists in the vicinity of the Ayungin Shoal, in internationally recognized Philippine waters. The two vessels would have collided had the commanding officer of the PCG vessel not stopped his ship.

The Chinese foreign ministry claimed the Philippine boats had “intruded” without China’s permission.

“Throughout their maritime patrol operations, PCG captains consistently follow the 1972 Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGs),” he said. Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ma. Teresita Daza said an investigation into the near-collision is already ongoing and appropriate diplomatic action will then be taken.

“First of all, I would like to emphasize that the Philippines has the legal right to carry out routine maritime patrols in our territorial waters and EEZ. The deployment of the BRP Malabrigo and BRP Malapascua in the West Philippine Sea from April 18 to 24 was one such mission,” she said.

HOME AT LAST. After a difficult evacuation journey out of conflict-torn Khartoum in Sudan, the first batch of 17 overseas Filipino workers arrived in Manila Saturday afternoon. Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo welcomed the evacuees at the airport. Twitter account of DFA Secretary Manalo