PH Navy Braces for Possible Chinese Incursions

Jeoffrey Maitem - : Jan 12, 2026 - : 11:38 am

Manila is bracing for possible Chinese incursions in the South China Sea, where parts lie within the Philippines’ maritime territory. Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, Philippine Navy spokesperson for the WPS, said they are ready for the possibility that Chinese...

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Manila is bracing for possible Chinese incursions in the South China Sea, where parts lie within the Philippines’ maritime territory.

Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, Philippine Navy spokesperson for the WPS, said they are ready for the possibility that Chinese maritime forces might carry out more incursions in the disputed waters.

Trinidad said the Navy, along with the rest of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), is prepared to carry out "comprehensive archipelagic defense operations."

"The direction of the Armed Forces is very clear. We are here to implement 'comprehensive archipelagic defense operations.' This would mean that we should be able to secure and to protect all the way up to our exclusive economic zone and beyond the EEZ," Trinidad said.

Beijing has been accused of employing aggressive tactics against Philippine ships in the South China Sea, such as firing water cannons and using high-intensity lasers, and illegally patrolling within the country’s exclusive economic zone in a bid to assert its territorial claims in the contested waters.

China claims most of the South China Sea, rejecting rival claims from the Philippines and other countries and a 2016 international ruling that its assertion over the waterway had no legal basis.

Meanwhile, an expert say Manila should rethink its alliance with Washington.

Rommel Banlaoi, who heads the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research and lecturer at the International Studies Department of Miriam College in Manila, said the Philippine government should take action, a strong stance on the actions of the US In Venezuela.

Banlaoi was referring to a recent incident in which U.S. forces seized Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and flew him to New York to face narcoterrorism and weapons trafficking charges.

“Do we want to be associated with a state that arbitrarily uses military force against the tolerant state? So, it calls for everything in our alliance with the United States. And I have seen some scholars also talking to some of my colleagues about the timeliness of this situation,” said Banlaoi.

“For the Philippines, to rethink our alliance with the United States is a kind of practice that we want to normalize in international politics or we want to go back to the principle of the United Nations when it was created right after the Second World War?”

Philippine-navy-pn / Beijing / South-china-sea /

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