MANILA — Two Chinese fighter jets circled a Philippine aircraft during its joint patrols with Australia in the West Philippine Sea over the weekend, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief General Romeo Brawner Jr. said Monday.

The two People’s Liberation Army jets circled the Philippine Air Force’s A-29B Super Tucano for about 15 minutes on Sunday, Brawner said. He said the Philippine aircraft successfully accomplished its task despite the incident.

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“Sa taas naman sila nag-circle, but the circling happened for about 15 minutes, and our aircraft was able to finish its mission. Natapos nila ‘yung kanilang maritime air patrol in the WPS without any untoward incident,” Brawner told reporters at Camp Aguinaldo.

The AFP chief said the Chinese jets’ actions were no longer unusual.

“I don’t think it’s unusual. In fact, nangyari ito this year. May of this year, when a US aircraft was also flying over the South China Sea and they also encountered Chinese PLA Air Force aircraft circling them” Brawner explained.

“So, this is not the first time this happened. Nangyari na rin ito between a Japanese aircraft and a Chinese aircraft, between a US aircraft and a Chinese aircraft. This time, with our own aircraft. Mukhang ito na ‘yung nagiging taktika ng China over the South China Sea,” he continued.

He asserted the Philippines was well within its rights to conduct joint patrols with allies to promote the rules-based international order.

“Actually, we don’t know what they are trying to send us, but for us, it is very clear that what we are doing are legitimate operations because we have all the right to patrol our territorial seas and our exclusive economic zone,” he said. “That is exactly what we are doing, but this time, we are doing it with our allies and our partners.”

The joint maritime and air patrols of the Philippines and Australia will last until November 27, Monday. Brawner said no untoward incidents have been reported so far.

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“Our initial assessment of the maritime cooperative activity (MCA) between the Philippines and Australia is that it was very successful. Successful because there were no untoward incidents. Wala namang nangyaring masama, walang nasugatan. More importantly, we were able to achieve the objectives that we set out to achieve through this joint activity,” the top military official said.

Last week, the Philippines and the United States conducted three-day joint maritime and air patrols in the West Philippine Sea, with a Chinese warship also shadowing their activities.

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Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. believes Manila’s maritime cooperative activities (MCAs) with partners and allies are a “sustainable endeavor.”

“That’s why we entered into it in the first place. We do not enter into unsustainable initiatives, and hence, the phase and the tempo [are] based on the strategic guidance of the president. Our job, my main job is to make it sustainable. The armed forces’ job is to make it operationally secure and operationally efficient and effective,” Teodoro said.

Asked to react to Chinese media trying to project that the Chinese government is “laughing off” the Philippines’ joint patrols with the US and Australia, Teodoro answered: “Whatever we respond to China, they have their narrative, anyway.”

“If they laugh it off, if they laugh off significant initiatives according to international law and rules-based international order, [that] is to their detriment. They are just saying that they are the big bullies here and try to anger us whatnot. That’s not the way we’re doing things,” he said.

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The defense and military officials are hopeful multilateral patrols with other like-minded nations in the West Philippine Sea will be conducted soon.

“All iterations are possible with friendly and allied nations. That’s within the multilateral relations that we have discussed,” Teodoro said.

“Aside from the bilateral exercises and joint operations that we are doing, there are some countries who are expressing their desire to conduct joint maritime and air patrols, not just bilaterally but multilaterally. Right now, there is no specific plan yet, but we are continuously talking with our allies and partners, so this is a possibility probably by next year,” Brawner added.

“We really have to make sure that everything is in order so there is safety. Safety is our primordial concern here.”