Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro answers questions during an interview with the Associated Press at the Department of National Defense headquarters in Quezon city, Philippines on Wednesday, March 5, 2025. (Aaron Favila/AP)
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines and its security allies would take measures to counter any attempt by China to impose an air defense zone or restrict freedom of flights over the South China Sea, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said Wednesday, following confrontations between Chinese aircraft and those of his country, Australia and the United States.
Teodoro told The Associated Press in an interview that China’s increasing aggression in the disputed waters was now considered the greatest threat to the national security of the Philippines and should also be regarded as a global threat because it could choke a key trade route crucial for global supply chains.
“The greatest external threat actually is Chinese aggression, Chinese expansionism and the attempt by China to change the international law through the use of force or acquiescence…or its attempt to reshape the world order to one that it controls,” Teodoro said.
There was no immediate reaction by Chinese officials.
Confrontations over the strategic waterway, which Beijing claims almost in its entirety, have spiked between Chinese and Philippine coast guard and navy forces in the last two years. The long-seething territorial standoffs over the hotly-disputed shoals also involve Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.
Recent brushes involving Chinese military aircraft firing warning flares or flying dangerously close to drive away U.S., Australian and Philippine patrol aircraft have set off fresh alarms.
Teodoro said defense officials have discussed the possibility of China imposing a so-called Air Defense Identification Zone or any exclusion zone to restrict foreign aircraft movement in what Beijing regards as its airspace over the South China Sea.
“That is a very serious transgression of international law, which will demand our response,” said Teodoro, a U.S.-educated lawyer and a licensed commercial pilot.
“The Philippines will take a combination of measures singularly and with like-minded nations to counteract” any such action by China, he said. “We have formulated contingency measures to respond or to have proper courses of action.” He did not elaborate.
‘Flying too close’ and firing flares
Last month, a Chinese navy helicopter flew within 10 feet of a Philippine patrol turbo-prop plane it warned had encroached in what Beijing calls its airspace over the disputed Scarborough Shoal, prompting the Filipino pilot to warn by radio: “You are flying too close, you are very dangerous.”
An AP journalist and other invited foreign media on the plane witnessed the tense 30-minute standoff as the Philippine plane pressed on with its low-altitude patrol around Scarborough with the Chinese navy helicopter hovering close above it or flying to its left in cloudy weather.
The Chinese military, referring to Scarborough Shoal by its Chinese name, said at the time that the plane had “illegally entered the airspace of China’s Huangyan Island without the Chinese government’s permission.”
Australia separately protested last month after accusing a Chinese J-16 fighter jet of firing flares that passed within 100 feet of an Australian P-8 Poseidon surveillance jet in daylight and in international air space over the disputed waters.
China’s foreign ministry responded by accusing the Australian military aircraft of “deliberately” intruding into what it called Chinese airspace over the disputed Paracel Islands.
The U.S. military has also reported encountering such dangerous maneuvers by Chinese air force aircraft in the past over the disputed waters, where it has deployed fighter jets and navy ships to promote freedom of navigation and overflight.
In 2013, the Chinese Defense Ministry announced that it has set an Air Defense Identification Zone over the East China Sea that covers the airspace above a chain of islands disputed by China and Japan.
Beijing then issued a set of rules for the zone, saying all aircraft must notify Chinese authorities and are subject to emergency military measures if they do not identify themselves or obey orders from Beijing.
Japan, the United States, Australia, South Korea and other countries ignored China’s declared air defense zone and rules.
A ‘coalition’ against China?
Teodoro said blocs of security alliances among Asian and Western countries, including the Philippines, the U.S., Japan and Australia, have emerged and could band together in a broader coalition in the future against China’s aggression.
China has accused the U.S. along with its treaty allies of “ganging up” against Beijing and threatening regional security and harmony.
But Teodoro said “it is China’s own behavior that is the best motive for like-minded countries to band together because what it is doing is entirely unacceptable to a majority of the countries in the Indo-Pacific.”
Despite concerns over President Donald Trump’s moves to roll back U.S. security aid to allies worldwide, Teodoro was confident the Philippines’ long treaty alliance with the U.S. would continue.
“The Philippines has a truly unique relationship with the United States,” he said, adding that the decades-old alliance has “stood the test of time.”
Associated Press journalists Joeal Calupitan and Aaron Favila in Manila contributed to this report.
