President Marcos Jr. Calls The Philippines Must Be Prepared For Increasing External Threats

JAKARTA - President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said the Philippines must be prepared for all possibilities because of the increasing external threat due to rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific.

The Philippines' closeness to Taiwan placed it in the territory of China's interest, President Marcos said in a speech to troops at a military camp intensive province in the northern region dealing with the democratically-ruled island.

"The external threat is now becoming more real, becoming more worrying, and that is why we have to prepare," President Marcos Jr. told troops on Monday, in a statement shared by the presidential palace on Tuesday.

The Philippines is not trying to pull back its sovereign territory line including its exclusive economic zone, and the country is committed to self-defense while doing diplomacy, said President Marcos Jr.

Meanwhile, the Chinese Embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Philippines has longstanding territorial disputes with China, which claims almost the entire South China Sea, a ship trade route worth more than $3 trillion per year.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague canceled China's 2016 claim, a decision rejected by the Bamboo Curtain Country.