What PH Navy must do when foreign warships intrude

The Philippine Navy is drafting guidelines for  “unfriendly gestures” to foreign warships passing in Philippine waters without permission.

Actions that Philippine vessels may take include shadowing and crossing the bow, Vice Adm. Robert Empedrad, Navy flag officer in command, told reporters on Wednesday.

“Our concept is once our littoral monitoring stations monitor foreign warships entering our territorial waters without prior clearance, our available Navy ships will be directed to shadow or accompany the [foreign] vessel until [it] exits our territorial waters,” Empedrad said.

“So we continuously challenge the ship,” he added.

Shadowing from the air

If the foreign vessel does not answer or turns off its automatic identification system, “we can send aircraft to shadow and take pictures of the foreign warship in our territorial waters,” Empedrad said.

“If the [foreign] warship still does not respond, probably our ship can cross the vessel’s bow so it would not necessarily be provocative,” he said.

He said there would be no call to general quarters — an order to battle stations or brace for imminent damage.

“Just maneuvering to tell them continuously that they are passing through our territorial waters, particularly when the foreign warship’s passage is not expeditious. We can challenge them that their passage is not innocent,” Empedrad said.

He said he did not expect hostile response from foreign warships, as that would reflect badly on them.

Earlier, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana had complained about unannounced passage of Chinese warships in Philippine waters without prior notice to local authorities.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has filed a diplomatic protest with China over the misbehavior of its navy.