Guingona wants wargames to prevent entry of poachers

Vice President and Foreign Secretary Teofisto Guingona has called on the U.S. to re-direct the U.S.-Philippine wargames by preventing the entry of illegal poachers in the South China Sea.

It was a hint that the ongoing U.S.-Philippine war games in central Luzon, with the entry of 2,700 U.S. soldiers, should be directed at China, which has claimed all of the disputed Spratly archipelago off South China Sea.

"We are a maritime nation. In the past, we have experienced many poachers coming from foreign nations to exploit our territorial waters. They enter our seas and ravage our marine life. They destroy our corals, clams, and other marine species," said Guingona.

"Because of the ruthless poaching and plunder, the damage done to our marine life is at $ 15 million a year," said Guingona.

The result of the exercises should be objectively assessed by the congressional oversight committee which can include the additional objective of the war-games in central Luzon. Guingona suggested.

At the same time, the executive council can recommend to the President a better way to utilise the ongoing wargames for the benefit of the Philippines, said Guingona.

The vice president called for the establishment of a research body that can help the government utilise the wargames for the country's external threat.

Relations between China and the Philippines soured when the Philippine Navy discovered that China had built sophisticated structures that were earlier believed for offshore oil operation on Mischief Shoal, an area closer to Palawan southwestern Philippines than Freedom eight-island chain claimed by the country in the Spratly archipelago.

The U.S. earlier said it would not be involved in the China-Philippine conflict. The U.S. has been very careful in its relations with China, considered a major U.S. market in Asia.

The Philippines and China have not yet resolved their differences, although the two countries agreed to follow a "code of conduct" to prevent the escalation of conflict among claimants in the South China Sea.