US CONTINUES SUPPORT FOR PHILIPPINES NATIONAL COAST WATCH

WASHINGTON, D.C. —The United States’ Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) is committed to continuing its support to the Philippines’ National Coast Watch System (NCWS) and to maintaining the country’s sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea.

At a recent meeting with journalists participating in the Friends, Partners, Allies Program, DTRA International Project Officer US Navy Commander Bryan Kroncke said DTRA —attached under the US Department of Defense— has continued to expand the maritime sensor network of NCWS since the project’s completion in 2018.

“The project [would be] going to go on for the foreseeable future,” Kroncke said.

“I think there's always going to be a relationship between making sure that we're providing the best tools and the most current tools possible,” he said.

Since 2012, DTRA has provided more than $60 million to the NCWS for the acquisition of advanced equipment and training of personnel, according to the US Embassy in the Philippines.

Kroncke said DTRA’s work for the NCWS “can go as long as you have a lot of islands and a lot of coastlines.”

Established in September 2011 under Executive Order No. 57, the NCWS is a central interagency mechanism for a coordinated and coherent approach to maritime issues and maritime security operations towards enhancing governance in the country’s maritime domain. 

DTRA was responsible for constructing the National Coast Watch Center facility in Manila, Regional Coordination Centers in Cebu and Palawan, and other manned and unmanned sites around the Philippine archipelago.

“I think the world’s getting smaller and information’s getting faster and unfortunately bad guys can take advantage of that as well. So we need to make sure that technology continues to advance,” Kroncke said.

DTRA’s Director for Cooperative Threat Reduction Dr. Rob Pope said the US defense agency —focused on deterring weapons of mass destruction and emerging threats— is “very interested in working to help the Philippines maintain their sovereign rights.”

“As we see China violating international norms, violating international maritime laws, claiming areas illegally— as their own territory for their own security, it makes the Philippines less safe. It makes the United States less safe,” Pope said.

Pope said advocating for maintaining the Philippines’ sovereign rights is “going to make us all safer and make us better able to track all the kinds of threats we've been talking about.”

“I think seeing the Philippines and the United States and ASEAN countries all working together to try to keep awareness of what’s moving in that region, who the bad actors are in that region, and being able to take actions together that make us all safer helps,” Pope said.

Tensions between China and the Philippines have heightened in recent months as both sides traded accusations over a series of incidents in the disputed waters.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion in annual ship commerce. Its territorial claims overlap with those of the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Brunei.

A portion of the South China Sea within the Philippine EEZ has been renamed the West Philippine Sea.

In 2016, an international arbitration tribunal in the Hague said China's claims had no legal basis, a decision Beijing has rejected. —NB, GMA Integrated News

This article US continues support for Philippines national coast watch was originally published in GMA News Online.

2024-04-29T15:05:42Z dg43tfdfdgfd