PH air assets take center stage in 9th joint patrol with US

MANILA, Philippines — Air assets of the military took center stage in the 9th two-day joint patrol of Manila and Washington in the West Philippine Sea, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said on Thursday.

According to AFP Public Affairs Office chief Col. Xerxes Trinidad, the maritime cooperative activity’s (MCA) exercise “box” took place west of Zambales from Tuesday to Wednesday (Dec. 9-10).

The MCA area is relatively near the Scarborough (Panatag) Shoal, an atoll which has been in China’s de facto control since 2012 in outright disregard of a landmark 2016 arbitral award which ruled that the atoll should be a shared fishing ground between three countries including the Philippines. 

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Nevertheless, the AFP has repeatedly said that its MCAs are not directed towards any other country, and this time, it is meant to reaffirm “the enduring defense partnership”  between Manila and its sole treaty ally Washington.

“During the exercise, the AFP deployed a robust set of assets,” the military also said in a statement.

Eight Philippine Air Force assets—namely three each of its FA-50 fighter jets and A-29B Super Tucano aircraft, and a unit of Black Hawk and Sokol helicopters—joined the drills.

The drills also saw the presence of the Philippine Navy’s guided-missile frigate BRP Jose Rizal.

For its part, the United States’ Indo-Pacific Command deployed the USS Rafael Peralta, a number of MH-60R Seahawk helicopters, and its reconnaissance aircraft P-8A Poseidon. 

Both forces executed a series of cooperative evolutions, including complex ship maneuvering exercises and fly-by or low pass of aircraft. An “intercept and escort” exercise of a US P-8A by the PAF’s FA50 was also conducted. 

Manila and Washington resumed joint West Philippine Sea operations in 2023, with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. himself making this announcement that marked the reversal of former President Rodrigo Duterte’s policy.  /mr

In 2016, Duterte ordered the halt of joint West Philippine Sea patrols of Manila and Washington as part of his Beijing’s appeasement tactic. /mr