THE Philippine Navy confirmed on Tuesday, February 27, 2024, the reports of China’s increased interference in its electronic communication capabilities in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).
In a press conference, Philippine Navy spokesperson for WPS Commodore Roy Vincent Trinidad said such activity of China has been going on for the past three to four years or “maybe earlier.”
“They have noted an increase in cyber interference, electronic interference, jammings, and stuff like that not only for equipment of the ship but also for land-based communication equipment and this usually happens or are noted during preparation stages for RORE (routine resupply and rotation) missions,” he said.
“It’s on the communications on the ships and communication land, so there are times that interference or the ability to communicate is affected na hindi naman s’ya ‘yung normal na shortcoming sa ating communication but we know that there is a deliberate attempt to prevent them from communicating, ship to ship or on land not only for our communication aboard ship or on land but also cell phones,” he added.
Trinidad said the interference being conducted by China does not cause significant impact in their operations, noting that missions are ready to be executed and can be undertaken even without communication.
While he cannot confirm if Chinese authorities are able to get vital information through the communication interference, Trinidad assured that they are imposing and practicing communication protocols to ensure that all information are safe.
“There are protocols on how to address that so rest assured that we have been addressing these issues but we have noted them for the past good number of years,” said Trinidad.
“Wala naman (confidential information na nakakalabas), these are the normal communications traffic. I would not say eavesdrop, probably monitoring, monitoring our communications or interfering to preventing us from communicating regularly or normally. There are appropriate protocols how to address pag may mga interference na ganun,” he added.
Trinidad said Chinese vessels continue to loiter in the WPS, which the Philippine government maintained to be within its exclusive economic zone.
Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea Commodore Jay Tarriela also earlier said that Chinese vessels place floating barriers in the WPS to drive away Filipino fishermen and Philippine government vessels.
He said the Chinese will remove the barriers when there are no more Philippine vessels in the area. (TPM/SunStar Philippines)