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Category: Security

Duterte foreign policy direction ‘confusing’: security analysts

At the roundtable forum on Renato de Castro’s paper on “The Role of America’s Alliances in the Philippines’ Balancing Policy on China: From the Aquino to the Duterte Administration” last Friday sponsored by Stratbase ADR Institute, former senator and defense secretary Orlando Mercado related that to counter China’s occupation of Mischief Reef (Panganiban in Filipino and Meiji in Chinese) , 130 nautical miles off Palawan, in 1995 they decided to ground the BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal, just 26 nautical miles away.

Knowing that China was also eyeing Scarborough Shoal also known as Panatag and Bajo de Masinloc (Huangyan to the Chinese), they also grounded BRP Benguet not so far away from the protruding rock, 124 nautical miles from Zambales.

BRP Benguet, pulled out of Scarborough Shoal during Gloria Arroyo's administration
BRP Benguet, pulled out of Scarborough Shoal during Gloria Arroyo’s administration

This was in 1999, during the presidency of Joseph Estrada. Mischief Reef was occupied by China during the presidency of Fidel V. Ramos.