Armed Forces of the Philippines chief General Romeo Brawner said the Philippines was also looking at expanding the scope of large-scale joint military exercises to include more training with like-minded countries beyond its traditional ally, the United States.
He said Manila would prevent any moves by China to make Scarborough Shoal into a militarized area, similar to what Beijing did at Mischief Reef in 1995, where they first built a small structure ostensibly as a resting spot for fishermen caught in bad weather.
“And in fact, they said anybody can use it. And so we allowed them to do that,” Brawner told members of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP). “Later on, they built it into an artificial island, a militarized island that is now equipped with missile systems, radar systems, a big airfield that could accommodate jet fighters and even cargo planes and so on.”
