MANILA -- Despite needing more "bottoms" (naval ships), the Philippine Navy (PN) said Thursday it is doing everything to provide Unified Commands (UCs) with assets that can be used to patrol and defend the country's vast territorial waters.
This was emphasized by Navy spokesperson, Capt. Jonathan Zata when asked on how the PN deploys its ships to particular naval areas nationwide.
The UCs are composed of all military units in a particular area.
"What we can say is, although there is that need really to have more 'bottoms', to have more assets, the Navy is doing what it can with the resources available in order for it (to) be able to cater to the requirement of its customer and (the) main customer(s) of the Navy are the Unified Command commanders," he said in an interview with reporters.
The PN is known to operate 100 ships of various types, in its inventory.
"We are doing what we can and considering our current capabilities, we deploy it as much as we could," the PN spokesperson added.
Zata also added that Unified Command commanders have operational control over naval assets placed at their disposal and this includes how to deploy them. (PNA)
