Malaysia, Indonesia Allowed to Cross Philippines Maritime Border

Open source from the Philippines reported that President Duterte has given green light for Malaysia and Indonesia's authorities to cross border if they are hunting terrorist or kidnappers who enter the Philippines waters. The news was confirmed by local newspapers.

It seems that the Philippines has offered a trilateral cooperation to Malaysia and Indonesia to contain criminals who are using southern Philippines as a safe passage after committing crime either in Malaysia or Indonesia's boundary. Malaysia or Indonesian authorities only need to inform the Philippines navy to continue their pursuit. Philippines navy also will assist in the operation.

In the past there were many cases where our security personnel could not pursuit to the Philippines maritime area as that will be read as breaching countries sovereignty and may cause the diplomatic friction between two countries. Despite we manage to hunt the kidnappers but once they crossed the border than we have to stop there and revert to diplomatic channel for further investigation. This may take months and by then the kidnappers would have gone undetectable. 

With this new defense cooperation, maritime security can be enhanced for the safety of the region. This is a positive military cooperation on enhancing security in Southeast Asia. However, it was not clear whether Malaysia and Indonesia have agreed to reciprocate for the Philippines Navy to cross border in case terrorists/criminals entered into our territory.