The Philippines will upgrade outposts in waters off its coast and acquire more ships, its military chief said Monday, as the country seeks to push back against China's growing assertiveness in the disputed South China Sea.

Armed Forces chief General Romeo Brawner said the country will develop "the islands and other features" it held.

This photo shows a general view of the Philippine-occupied Nanshan island in the disputed South China Sea on April 21, 2023. The Philippines will upgrade outposts in waters off its coast and acquire more ships, its military chief said on January 15, as the country seeks to push back against China's growing assertiveness in the disputed South China Sea. Ted ALJIBE / AFP

The Philippines has outposts on nine reefs and islands in the Spratly Islands, located in the South China Sea.

Brawner said Thitu and Nanshan islands were among those where facilities will be improved with the installation of desalination machines and communications equipment.

"We are just trying to make it more liveable, more habitable for our soldiers because they really have poor living conditions," he told reporters.

The plan, however, did not include "fortifying the Sierra Madre," the crumbling World War II-vintage ship grounded on Second Thomas Shoal by the Philippine Navy in 1999 to assert the country's territorial claims.

The Philippines would also acquire "more ships, more aircraft, radars," Brawner said, as part of a modest modernization program that began more than a decade ago.

Beijing claims almost the entire South China Sea and has ignored an international tribunal ruling that its assertions have no legal basis.

This month, China held military drills in the South China Sea as the United States and the Philippines conducted their own joint exercises in the same waters.

The drills followed a month of tense standoffs between China and the Philippines in disputed reefs in the area that saw a collision between vessels from the two countries and Chinese ships blasting water cannon at Philippine boats.

The Philippine Congress, meanwhile, has earmarked P800 million ($14.3 million) for the transport department to build a port facility on Nanshan where boats, including those for fishing, could seek shelter.

Another P1.5 billion had been allocated for the expansion of the airstrip on Thitu, Luis Campos, the vice chair of the House of Representatives' appropriations committee, said Sunday. Command conference

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday directed the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to reconfigure its tactics in dealing with internal and external threats to the country.

Brawner, along with ranking military officials, briefed Marcos on the military's accomplishments in 2023 and the strategy the organization formulated for 2024 during the first command conference for the year in Camp Aguinaldo.

"What the President mentioned, just like his past announcements...we need to reconfigure our approaches in dealing with different threat groups — the communist terrorist groups, the local terrorist groups, the threats we are facing in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), and natural disasters," he said.

Marcos also outlined strategies for coping with such threats, including the whole-of-nation approach and the participation of the citizenry.

Brawner welcomed the President's guidance and vowed to make sure that the AFP's plans and programs were aligned with the directives of the commander in chief.

WITH FRANCISCO TUYAY