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Supported by gunboats and a former U.S. Coast Guard cutter, Philippine Navy SEALs and Marines approached a South China Sea island owned by Manila in a simulated seizure drill as Chinese forces observed from afar on Wednesday.Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Gen. Romeo Brawner and other high-ranking officers observed the exercise, among the most intense that Manila has held in the disputed waters, from the bridge of BRP Ramon Alcaraz (PS-16). Four rigid-hull inflatable boats transported members of Naval Special Operations Unit 4 and the 61st Force Reconnaissance Company to Loaita Island. Known to the Philippines as...

On Monday at 11 a.m., the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) confirmed Shandong, together with cruiser CNS Yan’an (106) and destroyer CNS Zhanjiang (165), were sailing in an area 447 miles south of Miyako Island. A map included with the release showed the PLAN carrier strike group (CSG) located east of the northeast tip of the Philippine main island of Luzon.Shandong launched and recovered fighters and helicopters. JMSDF destroyer JS Yugiri (DD-153) surveilled the Chinese strike group, according to the release.The Shandong CSG had previously deployed to the Philippine Sea Jul. 9-18 before returning to its homeport. The carrier deployed...

Using standards set forth by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the Philippine Maritime Zones Act and Philippine Archipelagic Sea Lanes Act identify the country’s internal waters, archipelagic waters, territorial sea, contiguous zone, exclusive economic zone, continental shelf and sea lanes. Manila wants these acts to solidify its rights and sovereignty within the Philippines’ maritime zones.Following the seizure of Scarborough Shoal in 2012 by Chinese forces, Manila turned to international courts to delegitimize Beijing’s claims in the region, culminating in the 2013 arbitration case and the 2016 South China Sea Arbitration. Despite the outcome of...

“The task force is comprised of U.S. forces providing our Philippines allies with enhanced cooperation and interoperability for their maritime operations,” reads a Monday statement from Pentagon spokesman Maj. Pete Nguyen provided to USNI News.Nguyen said the task force assists in planning and training for the Armed Forces of the Philippines Western Command. Philippine naval and air forces within this command frequently encounter their Chinese counterparts in the West Philippine Sea, an area of the South China Sea that Manila claims as its exclusive economic zone. Task Force Ayungin’s efforts included the integration of U.S.-funded unmanned surface vessels, which were...

A Chinese cutter blasted a Philippine fisheries vessel with its water cannon at Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea on Tuesday morning, officials in Manila said on Tuesday.The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, a civilian department meant to assist and regulate Philippine fishing efforts, said two offshore vessels were harassed by two cutters from the China Coast Guard and a warship from the People’s Liberation Army Navy. According to the agency, BRP Datu Cabaylo (MMOV-3001) and BRP Datu Sanday (MMOV-3002) were at Scarborough Shoal to resupply fishermen fishing near the disputed maritime feature.A video released by Philippine state...

The final resting place of an iconic U.S. Navy submarine that was sunk 80 years ago during World War II was located 3,000 feet below the ocean's surface, the Naval History and Heritage Command said Thursday. The USS Harder – which earned the nickname "Hit 'em HARDER" – was found off the Philippine island of Luzon, sitting upright and "relatively intact" except for damage behind its conning tower from a Japanese depth charge, the command said. The sub was discovered using data collected by Tim Taylor, CEO of the Lost 52 Project, which works to locate the 52 submarines sunk...

SNIP Rodrigo Duterte told a national address on Wednesday: "For those who do not want it, well, for all I care, you can die anytime." He also said he wants the police to restrict the movement of people who refuse coronavirus vaccines: "To those people who do not want to be vaccinated, I am telling you, don't go out of your house." "If you go out of your house, I will tell the police to return you to your home. You will be escorted back to your house because you are a walking spreader."

A Philippine military plane with local journalists on board ignored repeated radio warnings to "stay away" and "leave immediately" on Tuesday as it flew low over contested reefs near where Chinese vessels were moored in the South China Sea. The incident occurred as hundreds of Chinese vessels believed to be manned by militias in the South China Sea have spread to a wider area, the Philippines said on Wednesday, defying its demand for the flotilla to be withdrawn immediately. Marine Major General Edgard Arevalo, spokesman for the Philippines' armed forces, dismissed Tuesday's warnings that came from Chinese military outposts on...

With the unwinding of the U.S.-Philippines Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), the utility of Washington’s oldest alliance in the Indo-Pacific hangs in the balance.In February, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the termination of a 1998 Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States, accusing Washington of “neocolonial” interference in his country’s domestic affairs. As political disagreements continue to fester, recent Chinese actions in the South China Sea underscore the need for a functioning U.S.-Philippines alliance. Richard Haass of the Council on Foreign Relations, writing in Foreign Affairs earlier this month, warned that declining U.S. leadership and mounting global discord, coupled with...

I receive daily videos of President Duterte because of our interest in the Philippines.

Philippines' president-elect Rodrigo Duterte vowed Sunday to reintroduce capital punishment and give security forces "shoot-to-kill" orders in a devastating war on crime. In his first press conference since winning the May 9 elections in a landslide, the tough-talking mayor of southern Davao city warned his campaign threats to kill were not rhetoric. "What I will do is urge Congress to restore (the) death penalty by hanging," Duterte, 71, told a press conference in Davao. He also said he would give security forces "shoot-to-kill" orders against organised criminals or those who violently resisted arrest. "If you resist, show violent resistance, my...

**SNIP** The 11,000 strong rebel group, which dates back to the 1960s, aims to carve out greater autonomy in the Philippines for the Muslim minority in the South of the archipelago. The group was cited extensively in a federal case made against Yee and dozens of other defendants last March following a four-year investigation. Yee, ironically known for his gun control legislation, was arrested then on a host of charges including plotting to smuggle guns into the country to be obtained through MILF contacts brokered by his associate, Dr. Wilson Lim . In an affidavit unsealed last year, Yee spoke...

With the U.S. moving the majority of its naval fleet to the Pacific, commanders are eagerly looking for invitations to park the planes and ships that will be pouring into the region. Travis Tritten at Stars and Stripes reports that the Pentagon has apparently been fanning the old flame of friendship with the Philippines and will be re-opening two bases it left in 1991 — Subic Bay and Clark Air Base. The U.S. had a falling out with the island nation in the early nineties and pulled out of the bases, which were then built-up by a series of private...

Manila, Philippines - The Philippines said its largest warship was engaged in a tense standoff with Chinese surveillance vessels Wednesday at a disputed South China Sea shoal, after the ship attempted to arrest Chinese fishermen but was blocked by the surveillance craft. Foreign Secretary Albert Del Rosario summoned Chinese Ambassador Ma Keqing to resolve the dangerous impasse diplomatically. Del Rosario's office said in a statement that the Scarborough Shoal "is an integral part of Philippine territory" and Filipino authorities would assert sovereignty over the offshore area.

While the environmentalists and climate change cultists were freezing their butts off worrying about saving the planet because of global warming and atmospheric pollution caused by carbon dioxide, the planet itself didn't seem to want to be saved. Or maybe the planet has to destroy itself to save itself. Or something. Anyway, off in the Philippines, Mount Mayon volcano has had a total of 248 volcanic quakes and tremors since Monday. In a statement, Phivolcs director Renato Solidum explained that 50 of these events were explosion-type, wherein minor explosions produced volcanic earthquakes and tremors. "However, only seven were observed during...

A powerful political clan allied to the Philippine president, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, is suspected of masterminding an election massacre that left 57 people dead, police said today. Four local commanders, including one provincial police chief, have already been relieved of their duties and confined to camp while being investigated for what the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, called a "heinous crime". As the full extent of the carnage emerged, domestic and international pressure is growing on Arroyo to find and punish those responsible. In her first comments on the killings the president, who has declared a state of emergency in Maguindanao...

Suspected Muslim guerrillas detonated a bomb near a Roman Catholic cathedral in the southern Philippines on Sunday, killing at least five people and wounding 46. The bomb exploded outside the Immaculate Conception cathedral in Cotabato city as churchgoers were attending Mass. Two people were killed instantly in the attack and three others, including a militiaman, later died in hospitals, military officials said. Among the wounded were six soldiers and militiamen who were in an army van that passed by the cathedral when the device, fashioned from a mortar round, exploded, Cotabato city Mayor Muslimin Sema said. The improvised explosive, which...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MFEFnRJC4k

Top Philippine court rejects Muslim autonomy deal By OLIVER TEVES MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine Supreme Court threw out on Tuesday a proposed accord to grant minority Muslims expanded autonomy after Christian protests and renewed fighting convinced the government to abandon the deal. The court had already blocked the planned Aug. 5 signing of the agreement after Christian politicians in the main southern region of Mindanao, scene of a decades-long Muslim rebellion, claimed it violated the constitution and could lead to the partition of the Philippines. The move angered Moro Islamic Liberation Front guerrillas, who went on a rampage...

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 15, 2008 (AFP) - Somali pirates hijacked a Philippines-managed bulk carrier with 21 sailors aboard on Wednesday, a maritime watchdog said. Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's (IMB) piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur, told AFP pirates boarded the vessel at 0344 GMT in the notorious Gulf of Aden.