As the Philippine Navy celebrates its 118th founding
anniversary Wednesday, PN flag-officer-in-command Vice Admiral Caesar Taccad
emphasized the need to focus further on territorial defense as serious threats
against the country's maritime interests are now emerging.
"Today, the enemy stands at our doorstep and we can no
longer over-exaggerate the urgency of the threat against our maritime interests
and possibly our territorial integrity. The need for our country to bring more
focus to territorial defense is more pronounced than ever, a need which we have
to answer to even while we are addressing our internal security problems,"
he stressed.
This is an obvious reference to the country's territorial
row in the West Philippine Sea .
"Our Commander-in-Chief (President Benigno S. Aquino
III) once said, what is ours is ours, sir, rest assured that your navy will
abide by its duty to defend and protect what is rightfully ours," Taccad
stressed.
The Chief Executive was the guest-of-honor and speaker in
the Navy's 118th founding anniversary Wednesday.
Aquino also headed the commissioning ceremonies for the
country's first strategic sealift vessel, the BRP Tarlac (LD-601) and three
ex-Royal Australian Navy landing craft heavies who were named BRP Agta
(LC-290), BRP Iwak (LC-289) and BRP Waray (LC-288).
All four ships will be assigned to the Sealift Amphibious
Force of the Philippine Fleet.
The PN chief also took this opportunity to express the
entire PN's appreciation to the Chief Executive for his efforts in modernizing
the Navy.
"Allow me sir to take this time to express the
gratitude of all the men and women of the navy for the support and faith you
have given us. Under your leadership, the Navy saw an unprecedented momentum in
the upgrade of our capability since the modernization program started. Year
after year, we saw the outpouring of support as our government acquired more
and more assets, platforms, and hardwares to boost our navy’s capability,"
Taccad stressed.
"We have built better facilities and naval bases the
boosted our naval defense posture, within only six years, we were able to add
to our inventory the two Del Pilar-Class frigates, the BRP Gregorio Del Pilar
(PF-15) and BRP Ramon Alcaraz (PF-16), five AgustaWestland AW-109 helicopters,
three multi-purpose attack craft, and most recently our first landing dock
vessel, the BRP Tarlac and five landing craft heavy from Australia namely BRP
Waray, BRP Iwak, BRP Agta, BRP Ivatan, and BRP Batak," he added.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=890774
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