MANILA, Philippines — In the midst of massive disinformation attacks, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) vowed that BRP Sierra Madre (LS-57) will remain in Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal.
“Allow me to say this to all and sundry, Filipinos and foreigners alike: BRP Sierra Madre is there to stay on Ayungin Shoal. We will not remove that ship,” Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, AFP spokesman for the West Philippine Sea (WPS) told reporters in a press briefing at Camp Aguinaldo on Tuesday.
The AFP’s firm resolve came amid efforts of the Chinese Embassy in Manila in sowing disinformation about Philippines' WPS naval outpost that Beijing has long demanded for Manila to remove amid its illegal claim on the area.
BRP Sierra Madre is a World War II US Navy tank landing ship that the Philippine Navy intentionally grounded on Ayungin Shoal in 1999 to serve as a permanent military outpost asserting Philippine sovereignty through a physical outpost in the area following China's occupation of Mischief Reef in 1995.
Meanwhile the Chinese Embassy’s version was that the Philippine government deliberately grounded the ship in the area because it had “leaking problems” and needed “emergency repairs.”
They followed this by saying China immediately “lodged formal protests and demanded that the ship be towed away.”
FMI spike
The AFP said there has been a noted spike in foreign malign influence (FMI) over the past four months.
FMIs are hostile efforts by a foreign government—or its proxies—to covertly or coercively shape public opinion, policies, and democratic institutions in another country to advance its own interests.
Trinidad said such operations specifically target government officials, including Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., dissemination of false narratives on Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough Shoal), the West Philippine Sea and Ayungin Shoal as well as distortion of present and historical facts aiming to divide the nation.
