Marawi City — A group of Moro youth students expressed concerns that any conduct of multinational military exercises within the territory of the Bangsamoro waters could stir security peril on a fragile local peace situation.
Amana Hamid, spokesperson of the group, said Muslims youth and student organizations in the region are wary of the possibilities that Muslim Mindanao provinces will become “unwitting hosts” to military exercises involving countries of the Indo-Pacific Region.
Hamid said Moro youth students, having been to traumatic experience here in 2017, even feared what she described as a “Marawi Siege Part 2,” if the government proved not cautious enough in implementing foreign policies at hosting military exercises involving multinational forces.
Under the Annexes of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), the Bangsamoro Waters (BMW) runs five more nautical miles off the 15-kilometer municipal waters or 22.22 kilometers from the coastal contour during the low-tide period.
This developed Monday, as the White House disclosed “U.S. Fact Sheets on Indo-Pacific Strategy (consisting of) five Core Objectives,” according to foreign news reports.
To recall, the Philippine government in November 2015 entered into a cooperation treaty for the Freedom of Navigation with the United States and subsequently with other countries of the Indo-Pacific Region.
The Indo-Pacific Region is composed of Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Timor Leste, United States, and Vietnam.
Hamid said Moro students here have gone through traumatic experiences from the bloody Marawi siege stirred by youthful adventurism in the advent of ISIS-influenced terrorism.
The Philippines is the oldest US ally in the region marked by cooperation in times of war and peace and with sustainable aid programs that spans in over a century of friendship.
Only last February 10, the US turned over a newly constructed assault boat pier and maintenance bay facility worth $5 million in Ternate, Cavite, to the Philippine Marine Corps (PMC) as part of a small-scale construction Foreign Military Financing (FMF) grant.
Incidentally, local observers have noted a fast-pace development of infrastructure facilities in Panglima Sugala town in Tawi-Tawi, during the last 10 years, evolving into what appears an ideal open port and anchorage for navy ships. The town is known for its cove coastal sea made anchorage in the past for Philippine Navy ships.
Tawi-Tawi is part of the five-province and three-city BARMM. The other provinces of the region are: Basilan, Lanao Sur, Maguindanao, and Sulu.
