Philippine Ministry of Defense receives military aid from China.

As reported by Defense Studies, Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian led the ceremonial handover of donated equipment from the Ministry of National Defense of the People’s Republic of China to the Department of National Defense at Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City.
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Military equipment delivered by China to the Philippine army (Picture source: Defense Studies)

Also present during the event were DND senior officials led by Undersecretary for National Defense Cardozo Luna, CSAFP Gen Andres Centino, PVAO Administrator Usec Ernesto Carolina, OCD Administrator Ricardo Jalad, and VMMC Director Dominador Chiong, among others.

The Chinese gift includes engineering, transport, and handling military vehicles, as well as buses. As Joe Saballa reported last January in The Defense Post, the Chinese government allocated $19.5 million in military equipment to the Philippines despite tensions over the highly-contested South China Sea. According to the Philippine Department of National Defense, the first $11 million batch of military aid arrived in Manila on January 16. This included rescue and relief equipment for the country’s armed forces.

The vehicles illustrated here above seem to correspond to the second $8.5 million batch of military donations which is reportedly part of Chinese President Xi Jinping‘s commitment to supporting the Philippine government in counter-narcotics and counter-terrorism efforts.

In addition to relief and rescue equipment, the southeast Asian nation will receive drone systems, detectors, explosive ordnance disposal robots, bomb disposal suits, transport vehicles, ambulances, water purification vehicles, fire trucks, and engineering supplies, which appears to be already partly done this February month. Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian said in a press release that his country will continue to support the Philippines in disaster relief and military modernization initiatives.

Military equipment delivered by China to the Philippine army on January 16, 2022 (Picture source: Twitter account of Frances Mangosing)

Military equipment delivered by China to the Philippine army on January 16, 2022 (Picture source: Twitter account of Frances Mangosing)

Military equipment delivered by China to the Philippine army on January 16, 2022 (Picture source: Twitter account of Frances Mangosing)