00:00 It is time for professionals like doctors and engineers to send their students to Pag-asa Island in Calayaan.
00:08 Until now, facilities and medical services are still facing problems.
00:14 This is the joint force that Joseph Morong and Chino Gaston are talking about.
00:22 This school is still in a bad condition after the destruction of Pag-asa Island in Calayaan in 2021 due to the storm Odette.
00:30 That's why some students are only in the training center but earlier, there were no teachers.
00:36 The opening schools were late.
00:38 It is also prohibited to have an illness in Pag-asa Island.
00:41 There is only a municipal health center there that is not ready for those who are sick or in an emergency.
00:48 We have stocks of medicines there, usual ones.
00:52 But if we are really assessed that we need to go down, we would be requesting from the AFP, an aircraft.
01:04 In the 1940s, when the Philippines discovered and controlled the Calayaan Island Group near Palawan,
01:10 in 1978, the municipality of Calayaan was established with a barangay, Barangay Pag-asa Island.
01:17 Here in Puerto Princesa, the municipality has an extension office.
01:21 But since then, it seems that the construction of facilities and structures on the island has become slow.
01:28 For the maritime security expert, Ray Powell, it's time to change the strategy in the West Philippine Sea
01:35 because my status quo did not become effective or there was no movement because the construction of artificial islands there continued.
01:43 We would send, together with the Philippines, we'd send doctors, we'd send engineers.
01:48 Those are all within normal American practice.
01:51 We do it all the time. We do it in the Philippines.
01:53 We just have never done it at Pag-asa.
01:56 Powell does not believe that doctors and engineers will be forced to go there to harm China.
02:03 They have a bad argument.
02:04 They would have an argument that says somehow we're exacerbating tensions.
02:09 And we would simply say, with doctors?
02:12 If you're only always de-escalating, then what a large country will often do is take that as a sign of weakness.
02:19 We are also getting the attention of the AFP, DFA, Defense Department, and China in this matter.
02:25 Joint maritime patrols of the Philippines, Australia, and other countries are expected to be conducted in the West Philippine Sea.
02:33 This was mentioned at the end of the ALON 2023 Joint Military Exercises of the Philippines and Australia, together with several US forces.
02:41 The joint patrols is merely the next stage of our relationship, showing the region that we are unified in our desire for a free, peaceful, and stable, and prosperous region.
02:53 We are, of course, anticipating the conduct of joint maritime patrols with Australia in areas of common interest, together with other like-minded partners such as Japan and the United States.
03:10 According to AFP Chief General Romeo Browner, this has been approved by President Marcos, although some details are still being fixed.
03:17 When the joint patrols are conducted, the question is, will it reach places like Ayungin, where China is blocking resupply missions to the DRP Sierra Madre?
03:27 We don't talk about operations as such. This is a case of where countries like Australia and the Philippines exercise our right of freedom of navigation and overflight in international waters.
03:41 We have done so for many, many years, and we will continue to do so.
03:46 For GMA Integrated News, Chinu Gaston and Joseph Morong, for 24 Hours.
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