Palace seriously considering US spy planes deployment

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang is seriously considering asking the United States to deploy spy planes to better monitor Philippine territories, an official said Wednesday.

"We have taken a number of actions to enhance our ability to monitor our sea lanes. I am sure you've heard of Coast Watch. Coast Watch is a series of radars we are putting up around our territory with the help of Australia and the United States. You have to view these surveillance flights, if they happen, in the context of a general effort to do that," Secretary Ricky Carandang of the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office.

Carandang added: "So in the context of all these things we are doing, I would think that it would be something seriously considered."

He said that if the US spy plane's flyover in Philippine territorial waters happen, it would be "merely exercising our sovereign rights to watch over out territory."

Carandang clarified that asking the US to help the Philippines monitor its territory is only one of the options being considered by the government. He, however, declined to discuss the other options saying that these "are operational matters."

Carandang, as well as presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda, also reiterated that the Philippines' plan to tap US spy planes to monitor its territories should not be seen by China as a provocative action.

"This is not a provocative action. There is no aggressive intent here," he said.

Lacierda, meanwhile, told China in Chinese to "be a little careful" in its statements.

“Can I say to the Chinese, ‘Xiao xin yi dian’. Be a little careful about your statements,” Lacierda said.

President Benigno Aquino III had said that the Philippine is contemplating on asking the US to deploy spy planes in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) to monitor the disputed waters.

“We might be requesting overflights on that,” Aquino said, referring to US P3C Orion spy planes. “We don’t have aircraft with those capabilities.”