PHL committed to resolving West Philippine Sea issue peacefully

From the Philippine News Agency (Feb 24): PHL committed to resolving West Philippine Sea issue peacefully

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief-of-staff Gen. Emmanuel Bautista on Monday said the country remains committed on resolving its territorial disputes in the West Philippine Sea peacefully.

"With regards to our territorial dispute in the West Philippine Sea, we continue to give primacy to its peaceful resolution principally thru international arbitration. All our actions are in support to that. We remain hopeful that the issue can be resolved peacefully and result to peace and stability in the region," he added.

But Bautista stressed that this does not weaken the military's resolve to perform our mandate as protectors of the people and the state and the national territory.

"And we will continue to perform that mandate with whatever we've got," the AFP chief stressed.

"We have not invested much in terms of territorial defense for a long time as we have been so preoccupied with internal security concerns. But now we have an opportunity to do that with our new Modernization Program. And as our recent experience with 'Yolanda' has brought to the fore, we need to upgrade and modernize our capability to address calamities and disasters as well," he added.

Bautista also stressed that the AFP Modernization Program is designed to develop a minimum credible defense force and will transform the military into a multi-mission-oriented force, capable of effectively addressing the various security threats that the country faces including disasters and calamities.

"The AFP is currently in Phase 1 of the AFP Modernization Program which is from 2013-2017. This initial Phase focuses on the development of the AFP's core processes, systems and capabilities, and will establish the basic requirements for minimum credible defense and complete internal security operations requirements. This should likewise enable us to contribute to regional peace and stability, international peacekeeping as well as contribute to our collective capability to respond to disasters and calamities," he concluded.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=619380