AFP Joint Exercise DAGIT-PA kicks off

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief General Romeo Brawner Jr. (Photo from the official Facebook page of the AFP)

MANILA, Philippines — The annual defense drills of all units of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) officially commenced on Monday, General Romeo Brawner Jr. said.

The AFP Joint Exercise Dagat-Langit-Lupa (AJEX DAGIT-PA) for this year “will adopt an operationally focused framework enabling them to simulate their territorial defense, alongside a comprehensive archipelagic defense concept,” according to the Philippine military chief.

The yearly military games involve the country’s Navy, Air Force, Army, and Special Operations Forces.

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“This year, we will practice and rehearse our territorial defense plan Bantay Kalayaan,” Brawner explained during his speech at the opening ceremony of AJEX DAGIT-PA.

“Next year, we will no longer call this Bantay Kalayaan and come up with a new campaign plan which will incorporate both the internal and security operations and territorial defense operations,” he added.

In an ambush interview following the ceremony, Brawner further said in mixed Filipino and English: “We are really seeing the near-end to our insurgency problem because only a few armed members of the NPA (New People’s Army) remain. Our military operations was very successful, even against terrorism groups.”

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This year’s AFP Joint Exercise is the 8th and is anticipated to include a command post exercise, field training exercise, and cyber warfare exercise and  will introduce the information warfighter exercise.

Brawner pointed out that strategic communications are included in the conduct of defensive operations to ensure that they are giving out accurate information in the Philippines and other countries.

“Because if the enemy’s narrative prevails, you will have lost that war. The same is happening in the South China Sea and West Philippine Sea. We know very well that even though we are the ones being attacked by the Chinese Coast Guard and the Chinese militias, it appears in the news that we are the ones attacking them – fake news. So we have to counter that and we have to rehearse that in times of war,” he said in mixed Filipino and English.