‘DND had no prior knowledge of Chinese plane landing’

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s defense chief had no prior knowledge of the landing and refueling of a Chinese military aircraft last week in Davao City.

“I only learned about it when the plane had already landed. Somebody informed me,” Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told reporters yesterday at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.

But he stressed the Chinese military transport aircraft did not land in Davao City without notice or prior coordination with concerned authorities.

He said the foreign plane coordinated with the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP), which is “the agency in charge of our airspace.” He explained there was nothing wrong if the Department of National Defense and the Department of Foreign Affairs had not been informed of the landing.

“So there was coordination to land in Davao to refuel,” he added, noting that the Chinese aircraft was en route from Australia and there was nothing unusual with foreign planes landing in the country to refuel.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said he wanted to know if protocols had been broken in the incident.

The senator said a request to land must first be made through proper diplomatic channels before such is forwarded to the DND for action.

“If these protocols were followed by the Chinese military aircraft, there is no reason why our concerned agencies should not make public the same,” Lacson said.

He warned that being silent or vague on the issue would only raise more questions.

“If such protocol was not observed, and worse, if our concerned officials were not even aware until such Chinese military aircraft had already landed, then we acted like a province of China rather than an independent and sovereign state,” Lacson said.

In a press briefing, Lorenzana also said China is unlikely to invade the country despite its military buildup in the West Philippine Sea.

“I don’t think China will invade us,” he told reporters in reaction to a statement from former national security adviser Norberto Gonzales over the weekend urging the government to prepare a contingency plan for a possible Chinese invasion.

Lorenzana said wars of conquest are a thing of the past.

“Even if China is a superpower, it’s never been its habit to invade other countries. Even in their heyday during ancient times, when they were powerful in Asia, they had never seized lands,” he said in a mix of Filipino and English.

He added Vietnam and the Korean peninsula were closer to China but did not get invaded.

The Chinese, Lorenzana maintained, “are trying their best to become also a good and respectable superpower so I don’t think they will invade the Philippines.”

On President Duterte’s controversial statement that the military would oust him if he sends them to their death defending the West Philippine Sea, Lorenzana explained the commander-in-chief only meant he did not want them to get massacred.

But he stressed the soldiers follow the chain of command and would always obey orders to defend the country.

“If given orders, we always follow. It’s our culture,” Lorenzana, a former Army officer, pointed out.

No order to stop patrol

  He said President Duterte is an intelligent person and has a deep grasp of the situation, hence his diplomatic handling of the West Philippine Sea situation.

He also reiterated there was no order from Duterte for the military to stop patrolling the West Philippine Sea, contrary to claims by Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano. 

Lorenzana also said he is thankful the country is now reaping the fruits of Duterte’s prudent handling of the maritime dispute after the previous administration’s “mismanagement” of the issue.

He said trade with China was in a moribund state when Duterte assumed the presidency in 2016 and the Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal was off limits to Filipino fishermen. 

“Now, we sell our bananas there, they buy all our bananas. Their tourists here have doubled,” Lorenzana said.

“We can fish there and our troopers are no longer harassed, except in one very isolated incident at Ayungin Shoal,” he said.

“So is that mismanagement? We have managed it very well through the President’s leadership. It’s not mismanagement,” he said. “It’s the previous administration which mismanaged it.”  –  With Paolo Romero, Pia Lee-Brago