Marcos spoke to soldiers on Monday at Camp Melchor Dela Cruz in the province of Isabela, one of four new sites that the US military can access under a defence deal that was expanded last year.
The Southeast Asian nation should prepare for a “more pronounced” external threat, the president was also quoted as saying in a statement released by his communications office on Tuesday.
The external threat now has become more pronounced, has become more worrisome, and that is why we have to prepare
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr
“The external threat now has become more pronounced, has become more worrisome, and that is why we have to prepare,” Marcos said, without specifying.
The Philippines was not trying to redraw lines of sovereign territory including its exclusive economic zone, and the country was committed to defend itself while engaging in diplomacy, he said.
China’s embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Philippines is near two potential flashpoints in the region: Taiwan and the South China Sea. Manila and Beijing have had tense encounters in the disputed waters, most recently involving a supposed attempt by China to seize supplies and blocking a medical evacuation from a Philippine military outpost there.
Marcos steps out of a high mobility artillery rocket system (Himars) that he inspected before a live-fire exercise between US and Philippine troops in April. Photo: Reuters
Manila said on Saturday that it will continue to maintain and supply its South China Sea outposts without seeking permission from any other nation, dismissing Beijing’s demand to do so as “absurd, nonsense and unacceptable”.
The Philippines has a long-standing territorial dispute with Beijing over the South China Sea, a conduit for more than US$3 trillion in annual ship commerce.
China claims almost all of the disputed waterway. The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague invalidated China’s claims in 2016, a decision Beijing has rejected.
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