The Philippines will start building a marine base on its northern most uninhabited island Mavulis, which is the closest island to Taiwan, in order to boost its defense strategy and to deter illegal fishing from its waters, according to reports from Reuters.
The government will start building the marine base next month with the intention to keep an eye on their fishing grounds and to be more aware of activities around that region.
“We need to have a presence there,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Isagani Nato, spokesman of the Northern Luzon Command of the Philippines. “We are going to put up a facility to guard our maritime domain, and against poaching during the fishing period, he was quoted as saying by Channel News Asia.
Taiwan and the Philippines have confronted each other in the past and almost severed their ties when a Philippines vessel fired at a Taiwanese boat and killed a fisherman, also known as the Guang Da Xing No. 28 incident.
The shooting took place 180 nautical miles southeast of the southernmost tip of Taiwan, a location that is east of several inhabited Philippine islands and much closer to the Philippines than to Taiwan. But the location is where Taiwan and the Philippines exclusive economic zones overlap and like many jurisdictions around the world, Taiwan and the Philippines have not negotiated clear boundaries for that region.
Nato mentioned to the local media that the base will be home to a small marine unit to improve the military presence and defense as well as to gather information, adding that the structures would also serve as shelter bases for local fishermen.
In addition to defense and information gathering, the base will also be used to keep an eye on ships and vessels passing through the Balintang Channel, an international trade route in the northern Philippines used by international vessels to cross from the South China Sea into the Pacific Ocean.
Taiwan News © 2017