(Bloomberg) -- The Philippines’ military chief has backed the permanent presence of a US missile system that’s been in the country for months now, risking anger from China which had branded the weapon deployment as “destabilizing.”
“If I had my way I want them to stay here forever,” General Romeo Brawner Jr., the head of the Philippine armed forces, told reporters Wednesday on the sidelines of the Asian Defense and Security Exhibition in Manila. He’s referring to the Typhon missile system deployed by the US in northern Philippines since April which had irked Beijing.
“In fact, if we had enough money, for me, I’d like to buy Typhons,” Brawner said, to boost the nation’s defense arsenal and ramp up its security deterrence. Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo said in July that the missile’s deployment in the Philippines was only temporary after China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi told him that the weapon “could be destabilizing.”
The advanced mid-range capability missile system had been a point of contention between Manila and Beijing in the past five months, adding to already high tensions over competing claims in the South China Sea. The military chief’s latest remarks come days after Reuters reported that the US has no immediate plans to withdraw the weapon from its longstanding treaty ally in Asia.
Asked whether the Philippines plans to allow the Typhon system in the country indefinitely, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro separately said in the same event that he’ll neither confirm nor deny that, as he took a swipe at Beijing.
“Before other countries interfere with the creation of our credible defense posture, they should first stop their illegal activities, get out of the West Philippine Sea, take away their ballistic capabilities, destroy their nuclear arsenal,” Teodoro said, in apparent reference to China.
The Philippines, which had been trying to modernize its defense system, also plans to buy 40 new fighter jets amid recent hostilities with China in the airspace. Brawner last month said the country wants to acquire the latest weapons systems for deterrence.
--With assistance from Ditas Lopez.
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