Philippines AF Chief said Taiwan, but he meant Philippines. He knows why China got the personal data of all SIM cards through the SIM card registration act. China wins without fighting: they know already where to go, who to get, who to take out, when and how. Taiwan will be taken peacefully, not one shot, because China wants to take over completely the chip manufacturing base seemlessly, without any interruption. Bye bye Philippines! America already lost you: you are the next Ucraine.

 

Philippine Armed Forces Chief Tells Troops to Prepare For Taiwan Invasion

Aaron-Matthew Lariosa

April 2, 2025 6:00 PM

Philippine Marine Corps Sgt. Luel Depra, a force reconnaissance Marine with Force Reconnaissance Group, Battalion Landing Team 10, 4th Marine Regiment, assesses the terrain during a reconnaissance patrol on Mavulis Island, Philippines, April 30, 2024. US Marine Photo

Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Gen. Romeo Brawner told troops of Northern Luzon Command to prepare for a Taiwan invasion contingency, citing the repatriation of citizens and the “inevitability” of Manila’s involvement in a cross-strait conflict.

“Because, if something happens to Taiwan, inevitably we will be involved,” Brawner said in a Tuesday speech at the country’s northernmost unified command’s 38th anniversary.

The Philippine military chief urged the forces responsible for defending Manila’s territories in the Luzon Strait to “start planning for actions in case there is an invasion of Taiwan.”

“But let me give you this further challenge. Do not be content with just securing the Northern Hemisphere up to Mavulis Island. Start planning for actions in case there is an invasion of Taiwan,” Brawner said.

He further identified Northern Luzon Command as the leader in any contingency operation related to Taiwan, particularly in the “rescue” of the tens of thousands of overseas Filipino workers from the island in the event of a conflict. Northern Luzon and the West Philippine Sea – a section of the South China Sea containing the Philippine exclusive economic zone – were identified by Brawner as an area where Manila perceives “the possibility of an attack.”

“Because, if something happens to Taiwan, inevitably we will be involved. There are 250,000 OFWs working in Taiwan, and we will have to rescue them,” Brawner said.

Contingency efforts for the evacuation and repatriation of Philippine citizens have been drafted by the command in recent years. The U.S.-Philippine Marine exercise, Kamandag 8, reportedly involved some of these plans during drills in Batanes.

While the Philippine military chief did not explicitly mention the cause of these security concerns, he echoed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s “peace through strength” remarks and identified the efforts of “Communist China” against the Philippines in the cyber, information, cognitive and political warfare domains.

“In the speech of Secretary Hegseth, he said that their objective is to obtain peace through strength. But how do you achieve strength? Strength is achieved through preparing for war. And so we are following that line,” he said.

Brawner’s remarks came amid the beginning of snap naval and air drills from Eastern Theater Command around Taiwan, which included the transiting of the People’s Liberation Army Navy Shandong carrier strike group through the Luzon Strait. In March, Manila deployed an ex-U.S. Coast Guard cutter and a frigate to the strait following maritime security concerns. Philippine forces in Northern Luzon conducted 217 maritime patrols in 2024.

Mavulis and others in the Batanes island chain have received increased attention from Philippine and American military planners. Balikatan 2024 saw U.S. forces deploy sensors, HIMARS and aviation across the island chain separating Taiwan from Luzon. Hegseth identified joint special operations training in Batanes as one of the initiatives that will “re-establish deterrence” during his visit to the Philippines last week.

Ben Lewis, a co-founder of PLATracker, an organization that monitors Chinese military activity and development, told USNI News that Manila’s efforts to evacuate its nationals “would likely require Philippine forces to cross Chinese maritime and air boundaries around Taiwan.”

This could lead to “inadvertent escalation,” Lewis said.American basing access through the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, which has five sites located across Luzon – could be used by American forces in the event of a conflict over Taiwan. While Manila has claimed that no offensive operations will occur from these bases, they have operational benefits if a war were to break out, Lewis said.

“Northern Luzon is uniquely positioned to impact a Taiwan contingency; it is within operational distance of southern Taiwan, including the vital port of Kaohsiung, and serves as the southern boundary of the Bashi Channel, the primary gateway between the Taiwan Strait and the Western Pacific. Bases in Northern Luzon could provide US forces the ability to forward deploy aircraft and missile systems that could be used to impede PLA amphibious landing operations in Southern Taiwan,” Lewis said.

The administration of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. described cross-strait relations as a “major concern” in its 2023-2028 National Security Policy.

“Any military conflict in the Taiwan Strait would inevitably affect the Philippines given the geographic proximity of Taiwan to the Philippine archipelago and the presence of over 150,000 Filipinos in Taiwan,” reads the report.

Balikatan 2025 will see the quiet northern provinces receive a flurry of multilateral military drills, with Brawner saying that Northern Luzon Command is set to host a majority of exercise activities. Last year’s drills saw coastal defense, heliborne, airfield and maritime domain awareness exercises across the area.

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