In a recent forum held at the Ateneo de Manila University, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jnr said the government is expecting additional assets for the Philippine Navy as part of the Armed Forces of the Philippines modernization program. These include two missile corvettes and six offshore patrol vessels being built by defense contractor HD Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea and two landing docks by shipbuilder PT PAL in Indonesia.
“We are investing in creating new dockyards and shipyards that are operationally secure, particularly in the West Philippine Sea,” Teodoro Jnr.
“We have ten naval vessels arriving without any dockyard to put them in, so I’m catching up to create new facilities for the capabilities that were ordered before and for the capabilities that we will need,” he added.
The building of dockyards and shipyards, according to Teodoro Jnr, is necessary for secure and dedicated defense infrastructures and capabilities, he said.
In Subic, Zambales, where the Philippine Navy inaugurated a Naval Operating Base in March 2022, LCDR Rey Sontilla Nosa, the executive officer, told Naval News that ongoing upgrades are being implemented to accommodate future capital ships.
Subic Bay was the site of the US’ largest overseas naval facility until Washington withdrew from its military bases in the Philippines in 1991.
Since then, both Philippine and American military forces have been utilising the 262-square-mile area to facilitate resupply, refuelling, and repair of vessels. Subic’s port facilities also support the delivery of US military equipment into the Philippines during bilateral exercises.
“We are also proposing the construction of a finger pier in order for us to be able to accommodate this future surface and subsurface assets,” he said.
Asked about the strategic importance of NOB relative to the overall geography of the Philippines and its location in the South Pacific, Nosa said the base plays an important role to the Philippines effort to secure the features in the West Philippine Sea, particularly in the sealanes of Western and Northern Frontier.
Built in March 2022 to provide base and combat support to the Philippine Navy, the NOB inside the shipyard left by Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Philippines, is just 150 nautical Miles from Scarborough Shoal and six hours away from the ship’s response at 25 knots if something happens in the disputed shoal, a highly contested maritime feature in the West Philippine Sea.
The West Philippine Sea is Manila’s name for South China Sea waters that lie within its exclusive economic zone.
China lays claim to nearly the entire South China Sea, disregarding overlapping claims from neighboring countries, including the Philippines.
In 2012, Manila took Beijing to the international court after it seized Scarborough Shoal (Xianbin Jiao), a traditional fishing ground within the 200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone of the Philippines.
An international tribunal eventually dismissed in 2016 China’s sweeping claims over the South China Sea, including its islands, but Beijing has refused to accept the ruling.
“By 2028, this facility shall be a highly capable and responsive base and combat support to Naval Installation and facilities in the province of Zambales,” Nosa said.
