The exercise coincided with President Ferdinand Marcos’s departure for a five-day trip to India, where he said he would look to deepen maritime ties.
India and the Philippines have staged their first joint sail and naval exercises in the disputed South China Sea.
The two-day joint military deployment that kicked off on Sunday is likely to anger China, which claims nearly the entire key waterway and has separate territorial disputes with the two Asian countries.
Philippine Chief of Staff Romeo Brawner Jr said on Monday that the joint sail took place inside his country’s exclusive economic zone.
“We did not experience any untoward incidents, but there are still those shadowing us – as we had already expected,” Brawner told reporters, without naming China.
