ARMED Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff General Romeo Brawner has directed the Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom) to prepare for the possible invasion of Taiwan.
In his speech during the Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom) anniversary, Brawner said that in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, they would be at the frontline of operations to assist the approximately 250,000 Filipinos in Taiwan.
“So ie-extend na natin ‘yung sphere of operations natin. Because if something happens to Taiwan, inevitably we will be involved. There are 250,000 OFWs working in Taiwan and we will have to rescue them. And it will be the task of Northern Luzon Command to be at the front line of that operation,” he added.
Brawner said the “next big conflict” that the country will experience will not be against its own people.
“We have been in conflict for several decades with our own people, the members of the New People's Army, members of the local terrorist groups. Nung Marawi siege, medyo nasisingitan tayo, may mga sumama na mga foreign terrorists, but basically, we were fighting with our own people. But the next conflict, big conflict that we will be experiencing will not be against our own people,” he said.
“So we have to prepare for that and when I talk about warfare, we are already, we are already at war. I am not referring to the kinetic warfare that we see between Ukraine and Russia or between Israel and Hamas. But we are experiencing already cyber warfare, information warfare, cognitive warfare, political warfare. So sinisikitan na tayo. The communist China is already conducting united front works in our country,” he added.
Brawner made the remark following reports that the Chinese military had deployed assets and forces in Taiwan for the conduct of drills aimed at practicing a blockade of the self-ruled island.
The China government has continuously insisted that Taiwan is part of its territory, even threatening the use of force to bring it back to their control. (TPM/SunStar Philippines)