By Priam Nepomuceno
MANILA – The Oct. 20 rotation and resupply (RORE) mission for the contingent manning the BRP Sierra Madre (LS-57) in Ayungin Shoal, West Philippine Sea (WPS) was conducted successfully without any incident.
“The RORE is a regular and routine activity of the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines). It is in furtherance of our mandate to ensure that we rotate our personnel and we provide them with appropriate supplies. This is executed at the level of the unified commander, Wescom (Western Command). We do not need to highlight this,” retired Navy reservist Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, AFP spokesperson for the WPS, said in a media interview Thursday.
Trinidad assured the public that the AFP will keep performing the rotation and the provisioning of Filipino forces when needed.
The RORE on Sept. 24 was suspended following interference from Chinese maritime forces.
When asked to comment on Chinese claims that they gave permission for the RORE to happen, Trinidad said the AFP does not need to seek approval from any foreign power to do its mandate.
“The RORE is a routine mission of the AFP. It is in furtherance of our mandate. We need not seek the clearance nor the approval of any foreign power to perform our mandate. Let this be very clear: the AFP will keep performing its mandate, not only doing the RORE but (also) our MDA (maritime domain awareness) flights, our maritime patrols, our air surveillance flights. This will continue long into the future,” he said.
Trinidad called such claims an invented narrative by China.
“There have been a lot of false narratives they keep inventing just to further their agenda,” he said, referring to Chinese claims to Scarborough Shoal, Batanes, and the country’s Northern Islands, to name a few.
Trinidad dubbed such narratives as “inventions,” telling the public to consider these as “jokes.” (PNA)
