The National Task Force for West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS) assured the public that political changes will not affect efforts to defend the West Philippine Sea.

In a press briefing at the NTF-WPS Headquarters on Wednesday afternoon, Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea Commodore Jay Tarriela said the Marcos administration has placed awareness of the Filipino people on the issues taking place in West Philippine Sea as the main initiative of the transparency initiative.

“The NTF-WPS, the National Maritime Council (NMC) has been doing a lot of activities in ensuring that the Filipino people will hold on to this issue as an election issue that will never be forgotten,” Tarriela said.

Tarriela also said that recent political surveys have shown that eight of ten Filipinos supported candidates who had the WPS as a primary concern.

“It is our goal that in 2028, 10 out of 10 candidates would have the WPS as their primary concern,” Tarriela added.

NMC spokesperson Undersecretary Alexander Lopez also assured that President Ferdinand Marcos has made a clear order to resolve disputes in WPS through peaceful means.

“We will work through the diplomatic challenge mechanisms. We will work through our maritime strategy… anything that we do will be rules-based, consistent with international law, and no provocative actions on our part,” Lopez said.

The 1st Quarter NMC tackled the NTF-WPS’ actions in the WPS from January to March 2025, where the group monitored 638 Chinese vessels within the disputed waters. Yzabela Velez-White/DMS