The Philippine flag flies over Mavulis Island in Itbayat, Batanes. Batanes residents are encouraged to become Army reservists as the government plans to bolster the military capability of the island province. (File photo from the office of Sen. Francis Tolentino)
MANILA, Philippines — Residents of Batanes are encouraged to become Army reservists as the government plans to bolster the military capability of the island province, the nearest Philippine territory to Taiwan.
Philippine Army chief Lt. Gen. Roy Galido said such a call was in line with Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr.’s order to increase military presence and develop military structures in Batanes.
“We’re not planning to deploy. We are encouraging our fellow Filipinos [in Batanes] to volunteer, to be [a] patriot and be a reservist,” he said in a press conference at Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City on Thursday.
“We don’t need to deploy them because they are already residents in the area,” he added.
Galido wants to tap the eligible men and women of Batanes, which has a population of 18,831 as of 2020, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.
Teodoro’s directive for more troops to Batanes did not sit well with Beijing, however. It accused Manila of “playing with fire” on the “Taiwan question.”
READ: China to PH: Taiwan a ‘red line’ issue, ‘tread carefully’
But Defense spokesperson Arsenio Andolong said China has no business warning the Philippines about what it does within its territory, noting that Teodoro’s plan is part of the Department of National Defense’s Comprehensive Archipelagic Defense Concept.
The program aimed to address the country’s vulnerabilities and enhance its capability to defend its national interest.
Batanes’ Mavulis Island and the provincial capital of Basco are also being eyed as one of the potential venues for this year’s war games between Manila and Washington.
Mavulis Island, also the northernmost island of the country, is just 142 kilometers away from Cape Eluanbi, the southernmost point of Taiwan.
Taiwan, a self-ruled island that China regards as a renegade province subject to reunification, broke away from the mainland in 1949 following its takeover by Mao Zedong’s communist forces.