The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Tuesday said the report on a United States plan to deploy missiles to the Philippines in case of an emergency in Taiwan came from “unverified sources.”
“We’ve seen the article and if you read it closely, it states therein that there are still unverified sources in terms of the details that were given,” AFP spokesperson Colonel Francel Margareth Padilla said in a press briefing.
“So with that, we respectfully defer that question to the proper sources of information for them to clarify,” she added.
Citing a report of Kyodo News Agency, Reuters reported that Japan and the US aim to compile a joint military plan for a possible Taiwan emergency that includes deploying missiles to the Philippines.
The supposed plan, expected to be implemented in December, includes the deployment of US missile units to the Nansei Islands of Japan’s southwestern Kagoshima and Okinawa prefectures, and to the Philippines.
A US unit dealing with space, cyberspace and electromagnetic waves will be stationed in the Philippines, the report said.
However, the report cited unnamed US and Japanese sources.
PH as own plans
Philippine Navy spokesperson for West Philippine Sea Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad said Manila has its own contingency plans for a possible Taiwan emergency.
“That particular article mentioned the contingency planning of the US and Japan in the event of escalation in the Taiwan Strait and mentioned in that contingency plan between the US and Japan is the deployment of missile systems of the US in some of the island chains of Japan and the Philippines,” Trinidad said.
“That is from the perspective of the Japan-US alliance. The AFP has its own contingency plans and our forces will be deployed appropriately. Our engagements with other countries are all part of the contingency plans of the AFP,” he added.
According to him, the Philippines’ contingency plans also include coordination with allies in the region.
Trinidad confirmed that the US Army’s Typhon mid-range missile system which arrived in the Philippines in April is still deployed in the country.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said earlier this month that it had spotted 35 Chinese military aircraft, including fighters and bombers, flying to the island’s south on the way to exercises in the Pacific, Reuters reported.
China, which views Taiwan as its own territory despite objections from Taipei, regularly sends military forces near the island as it seeks to enforce its sovereignty claims. —RF, GMA Integrated News
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