By Robina Asido

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered the military to be ''steadfast'' in its external defense operation as the country will soon mark the 10th anniversary of the 2016 South China Sea Arbitral Tribunal victory.

Marcos issued his directive during the first semester command conference in Camp Aguinaldo that was attended by key military and defense officers including Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff General Romeo Brawner Jr. on Tuesday.

"The president's directive is to be steadfast in our external defense operations," Teodoro said.

Brawner said the maritime situation was discussed during the command conference with Marcos.

"On external security operations, we also discussed the situation that we are facing now in the WPS from our northern territory up down to our western hemisphere," he said.

"So we reported to the President of the ongoing maritime operations with the Navy, the Coast Guard, and the BFAR (Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources) including other agencies," he added.

Also tackled were the country's continued multilateral maritime cooperative activities with its allied nations.

"And in fact, a lot of other countries are looking at us and the way we react to the continuous bullying or we call it ICAD, illegal, coercive, aggressive, and deceptive tactics of our big neighbor China. So that is what happened," Brawner said. PHS