Aurora naval facility to secure PH Rise, boost archipelagic defense

From the Philippine News Agency (Mar 15, 2024): Aurora naval facility to secure PH Rise, boost archipelagic defense (By Priam Nepomuceno)

ENHANCING ARCHIPELAGIC DEFENSE. Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. (left) visits a naval detachment of the Naval Installations and Facilities - Northern Luzon in Casiguran, Aurora on Thursday (March 14, 2024). The facility is expected to help protect the Philippine Rise and improve the country's defenses through the Comprehensive Archipelagic Defense Posture. (Photo courtesy of the DND)

MANILA – The naval detachment in the province of Aurora will greatly enhance the country's capability to protect its maritime interests in the Philippine Rise (formerly Benham Rise) and improve its defense posture.

This came as Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. visited a detachment of the Naval Installations and Facilities - Northern Luzon (NIF-NL) in the town of Casiguran, together with other ranking officials of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

"The naval detachment, constructed and facilitated in cooperation with the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Freeport Authority (APECO), will boost the AFP's presence in the area and enhance security in the Philippine Rise and Philippine Sea in line with the country's CADC (Comprehensive Archipelagic Defense Posture)," DND spokesperson Arsenio Andolong said in a statement Thursday night.

Teodoro also met with director Maria Cristina G. Suaverdez of the APECO Board of Directors, along with the officers of NIF-NL, to discuss continuing efforts to guarantee the country’s control over resources in the Philippine Rise, Andolong added.

Completed in May 2022, the facility has a typhoon-resilient main building with complete amenities, a radio room, and an armory, all situated in a 5,362.50-square-meter space.

In a forum in January, Teodoro said the CADC would allow the military to protect and guarantee Filipinos, local corporations, and those authorized by the Philippine government an unimpeded and peaceful exploration and exploitation of all natural resources within the country's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and other areas that are within its jurisdiction.

"In plain language, we are developing our capability to protect and secure our entire territory and EEZ in order to ensure that our people and all the generations of Filipinos to come shall freely reap and enjoy the bounties of the natural resources that are rightfully ours within our domain," he said.

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1220873