The Philippines is working with Allies and Partners to protect critical undersea cable infrastructure, including through intelligence-sharing initiatives.
A global fiber-optic network of about 600 cable systems extends 1.4 million kilometers across ocean floors, carrying more than 95% of the world’s data traffic. Essential to the digital age, the cables have become targets for sabotage and other gray-zone activities as nations face challenges monitoring vast maritime zones.
“A coordinated approach to securing undersea cables is more effective than a unilateral approach as it will harness the joint capabilities of all nations involved and help address any capability gaps,” Philippine Navy Rear Adm. Roy Vincent Trinidad told FORUM. “Any multination effort will always start with [information] sharing.”
At a November 2025 forum on protecting undersea cables, Trinidad said Philippine government agencies have begun policy discussions, with the Armed Forces of the Philippines having ultimate responsibility for securing the infrastructure and the Philippine Navy playing a central role.
Trinidad said surveillance efforts would involve mapping underwater landscapes to create seabed profiles and track environmental changes. “It is still in the exploratory stages, but we have been conducting exercises on this with other navies, especially with our defense treaty ally, the United States,” he told FORUM.
Manila’s push to protect undersea cables is driven by recognition that deterrence requires persistent maritime sensing. In January 2026, Philippine National Security Council officials warned that recent cable-cutting incidents in the Baltic Sea and the Taiwan Strait reinforced the need for coalition monitoring.
Trinidad said the Navy is considering acquiring crewed and uncrewed systems to protect underwater infrastructure.
Retired Adm. Rommel Jude Ong, who served as the Philippine Navy’s vice commander, said the Navy can build rapid-response capacity by participating in regional exercises, engaging in contingency planning, and employing intelligence capabilities to monitor threats from state and nonstate actors.
“The region and the country need to build a coalition framework for maritime resilience and strategic deterrence to protect submarine cables, which are the digital lifelines of our time. It connects us — not just technically, but politically and symbolically,” Ong told FORUM.
As chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2026, Manila can position undersea security as a priority for the 11-member bloc, according to Nathaniel Schochet, a senior associate at CJPA Global Advisors and a nonresident fellow at the Indo-Pacific Studies Center.
“Under its chairship, the Philippines should take the lead in advancing initiatives that failed to gain traction in the past, such as the Underwater Code of Unplanned Encounters at Sea and the Submarine Safety Information Portal. It can also elevate existing ASEAN groupings, such as the ASEAN Submarine Cable Working Group,” he wrote for the East Asia Forum in January 2026.
ASEAN, meanwhile, could enhance its members’ undersea defense capabilities through maritime exercises, such as those held with the U.S. in December 2025, Schochet wrote. Exercises could expand to include partners such as Australia, Japan and South Korea.
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