THE ENDURING WPS SENTINEL

Continued from A1 ship, that is the responsibility of the AFP to man and maintain it.

“ Therefore we have to make sure that BRP Sierra Madre remains to be livable and provides a safe living environment for our troops,” he emphasized.

Meanwhile, the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS) said the government will not waver in its efforts to support military personnel deployed in that area, even as it condemned Chinese harassment on Filipino resupply vessels and their escorts.

It was referring to the aggressive, dangerous and unlawful actions conducted by the CCG and CMM against the PCG and Filipino supply ships who were conducting regular rotation and resupply missions in Ayungin Shoal this August 5.

“ We will never waver in our determination to resupply our troops stationed in Ayungin Shoal and other Philippine-occupied features,” Malaya vowed.

We provide food, we provide everything, provisions; irrespective of what China says, it is our right to bring whatever is necessary to maintain the station and to ensure that our troops are properly provisioned,” Malaya said.

The CCG and the CMM, he stressed, have no right to “block, or impede or otherwise control the movement” of PCG and Filipino supply vessels resupplying troops in Ayungin Shoal or any other Philippine-held features in the West

Philippine Sea.

‘A cat and mouse game’

AS China and the Philippines continue to play a “ cat and mouse” game, military observers flagged the high risk of an “unfortunate encounter” between these forces.

They did not explain in detail how this will happen, but said the constant running game might lead to a “miscalculation” on both sides.

A nd, as the August 5 incident showed, similar “dangerous maneuvers” such as those complained of by the PCG could bring tragic results.

Th is risk is high as China considers Philippine efforts to resupply its troops in Ayungin Shoal as an affront to its status as the region’s leading power. A nd while not comparable to its larger neighbor, the Philippines cannot just give way, convinced of its solid rights under international maritime law.

BRP Sierra Madre, a brief background

THE now 79-year-old BRP Sierra Madre, known as USS LST-821 and later renamed the USS Harnett County (LST-821/AGP-281) in US Navy service, was laid down on September 19, 1944, and launched on October 27 of the same year.

It was commissioned on November 22, 1944, and assigned to the Asiatic-Pacific Theater.

It earned one battle star for its services in World War II and was decommissioned shortly after the conflict and placed into reserve on

July 8, 1946. It was recommissioned on August 20, 1966, and saw service during the Vietnam War with US forces. It was later decommissioned again and transferred to the then Republic of Vietnam Navy, or RVN (also known as South Vietnam at the time) on October 12, 1970, and renamed RVNS My Tho (HQ-800).

The ship served the RVN until the fall of South Vietnam to North Vietnamese communist forces in April 1975.

The former RVNS My Tho fled the country during the fall of Saigon, carrying some 3,000 refugees and met up with other former South Vietnamese ships to rendezvous with USS Kirk (DE-1087) where they eventually made their way to Subic Bay, Zambales, where it docked for a year.

The ex-RVNS My Tho and other former RVN ships were eventually transferred to the PN in exchange for aiding and harboring South Vietnamese refugees.

Initially, the ship was named BRP Dumagat (AL-57) but was quickly renamed BRP Sierra Madre on April 5, 1976.

The ship continued to operate as a PN amphibious transport until the 1990s and was run aground in 1999 in the Ayungin Shoal to maintain Philippine territorial claim in the area.

A detachment of Philippine Marine Corps personnel has been always stationed aboard the ship and acts as the country’s military presence in the area.