Talks on West Philippine Sea joint patrol still in progress – NSC

MANILA, Philippines — Talks with the United States, Australia and Japan for the conduct of joint maritime patrols in the West Philippine Sea and the South China Sea region were progressing, according to National Security Council (NSC) assistant director general Jonathan Malaya.

Malaya, the NSC spokesperson, declined however, to discuss specifics when asked for updates.

“It’s a long process… there are a lot of issues and details that have to be resolved,” Malaya said yesterday.

He gave a presentation on the civil maritime cooperation thrust of the NSC at the Stratbase-ADRI’s “Protecting the Seas: Preserving Biodiversity Thru Marine Protection in the West Philippine Sea” hybrid forum held at the Manila House Private Club in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig on Monday morning.

In his presentation, Malaya said the NSC was now conducting a reassessment of the government’s maritime governance structure.

“(National security adviser) Sec. Eduardo Año would like us to adopt a new governance structure moving forward to deal with maritime security challenges. And this is what is called as the 360-degree archipelagic approach,” he said.

“So this 360-degree archipelagic governance structure takes into consideration all of the existing gaps… and we are calibrating these gaps in the context of the current VUCAD environment,” Malaya said, referring to “a volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous and dynamic” environment.

“We are apparently facing a VUCAD future. Therefore, to address that concern, the 360-degree archipelagic structure has two dimensions: first is the heart security component which covers territorial defense... and second is the Blue Economy component,” he said.

“And the National Task Force West Philippine Sea chaired by Año is now in the process of developing a clear and coherent national strategy for the West Philippine Sea,” he added.

“On the international level, we must harness the strengths of our partners, or strategic like-minded partners in the region to our advantage for further capacity building measures like joint exercises, diversified cooperation that would bring the country closer to being a capable maritime nation,” the NSC official said.

He cited the country’s cooperation with the United States on the Bantay Dagat Framework, a maritime security framework signed on May 23, 2022 in Hawaii which aims to improve regional maritime domain awareness and confront maritime challenges.

The country also had an expanded maritime cooperation with Australia through the Philippine Civil Maritime Security Program which involves collaboration on maritime governance systems, processes and inter-agency coordination; maritime natural resources management and environment protection, as well as technical assistance, research and workshops.

“We also have our partnership with Japan. The governments of the Philippines and Japan have reaffirmed their efforts to reinforce marine domain awareness and maritime law enforcement based on international law in particular the UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) for the stability of the South China Sea, the Sulu Celebes Sea and their surrounding areas,” Malaya said.