Teodoro fleshes out scope of new US-PH task force’s operating agreement

United States Admiral Samuel Paparo Jr., chief of the US military’s Indo-Pacific Command (left), makes a courtesy call on President Marcos at Malacañang on Tuesday, when Manila also hosted an international military forum organized by the US command. —File photo from MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

MANILA, Philippines — The new task force of Manila and Washington is not just to tackle Chinese aggression in the West Philippine Sea but also to address other external and internal matters, according to Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro.

Teodoro made the disclosure over the weekend as he fleshed out the details of the panel called ‘Task Force Philippines’ that he and US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth unveiled on Friday.

The Department of National Defense chief noted that this task force is an operating agreement between Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. and Indo-Pacific Command chief Admiral Samuel Paparo Jr. elevated to the level of Teodoro and Hegseth.

“It is nothing new but an operating agreement between General Brawner and Admiral Paparo raised up to our level and with, upon the, shall we say, permission, with the permission of both President Trump and President Marcos,” Teodoro said in a press conference after the signing of the status of Visiting Forces Agreement of the country with Canada on Sunday.

Teodoro said this task force is an efficiency mechanism to funnel all the activities “internally and externally.”

“We do not only converge in deterrence but we also converge because of the frequency of natural calamities that have beset us,” Teodoro explained.

“This task force will put more regularity into an immediate and quick response to the natural calamities that we are facing,” he added.

For security expert Chester Cabalza, this group force signals a “greater defense presence” of the United States in South East Asia and the entire Indo-Pacific region.

“While Trump magnifies his peacemaker hat and business skills, he still desires to maintain the US indisputable hard power,” Cabalza, president of the Manila-based think tank International Development and Security Cooperation, said in a message to INQUIRER.net over the weekend.

“The US brings a message of steadfast support to an oldest treaty ally still bullied by China,” he added.

Prior to this, Manila and Washington had ‘Task Force Ayungin’ unveiled during the time of former Department of Defense chief Lloyd Austin III last year.

It is not yet clear what will become of this task force, but a retired senior US Air Force colonel put forth possible scenarios.

“It feels like a re-branding of Task Force Ayungin to me,” said SeaLight director Ray Powell in a message to INQUIRER.net over the weekend. “Maybe a broadening of its mission.”

Teodoro said the new task force is a function of the Mutual Defense Treaty between Manila and Washington which calls on each other’s defense in case of an “armed attack.”

China’s aggressive moves against Filipino ships continue in the West Philippine Sea with a number of escalatory instances some experts say could border on “armed attack” that may compel the United States to come to the defense of its sole treaty ally in Asia.

Beijing claims almost the entire South China Sea but a landmark 2016 arbitral award effectively dismissed this while ruling heavily in favor of Manila’s sovereign rights. /apl