Phl defense strategy operationalized

The Philippines is setting into motion a defense strategy focused on securing and protecting the country's territorial waters, including marine resources, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro Jr. said yesterday.

- MICHAEL PUNONGBAYAN

In a statement, Teodoro said he has directed the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to "operationalize" its Comprehensive Archipelagic Defense Concept (CADC) "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."

His directive to the AFP came in the wake of Chinese President Xi Jinping's ordering his country's armed forces "to coordinate preparations for military conflicts at sea, protect the country's maritime rights and interests and the development of the maritime economy." It also came days after the Chinese Coast Guard's latest attempt to stop a resupply mission for troops on BRP Sierra Madre in the Ayungin Shoal.