AFP mulls strategic defense unit

MANILA, Philippines —  The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is looking at creating a new unit that will focus on strategic defense, in response to evolving global security challenges that see the country establishing new alliances.

Military spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla said the creation of the AFP Strategic Defense Command is also aimed at institutionalizing faster reaction time.

“We are actually doing three things. We are collaborating, we are calibrating and we are coiling like a spring. What we’re seeing with the creation of this, we are getting ready,” Padilla said.

“So that in any eventuality, we are not going to get ready but we are already ready,” she told reporters Wednesday night, noting that the new unit would have the intelligence, civil military operations, and military operations working together for speedy decision-making.

Padilla explained that the AFP is evolving amid modern challenges that necessitate the creation of new units like the Cyber Command and the Intelligence Command.

She said the planned Strategic Defense Command may be modelled after Japan’s, which boasts  of faster defense and calamity responses.

The AFP, she said, hopes to have the new unit fully organized within the year after a thorough review and feasibility study.

Padilla said military exercises with allies like the Balikatan are growing each year, and that efforts to make them more effective should factor in modernization, new equipment, training and interoperability.

“The overarching premise is that we do not reinvent the wheel. So whatever works for other countries, whatever country that may be, we can fuse all of these together to our advantage,” she said.

Meanwhile, the waters off Aparri have been declared a “no sail zone” by the Philippine Coast Guard effective tomorrow until May 4, as Philippine and US forces conduct live-fire exercises in the area under Balikatan. The joint military exercises began on April 21 and will last until May 9. Last Monday, Philippine, US and Australian force held a mock live-fire beach defense in Rizal, Palawan.–  Pia Lee-Brago, Artemio Dumlao