INCIDENTS of harassment by Chinese vessels against Philippine ships in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) in the South China have become the “new normal” for the military, the Navy said yesterday.
Commodore Roy Vincent Trinidad, Navy spokesman for the West Philippine Sea, said the harassment cases, including firing of water cannons, “are the trend.”
“It’s now part of the new normal, the new operating environment. We just have to ensure that all our actions are backed up by international law,” Trinidad said in a press briefing at Camp Aguinaldo.
Chinese vessels have harassed Philippine resupply missions at the Philippine-held Ayungin Shoal in the past months. The latest was on Tuesday last week, which injured four Navy men and damaged and a military-chartered civilian boat and a Philippine Coast Guard vessel.
The Chinese have also harassed Philippine vessels at the vicinity of Scarborough Shoal which has been under Chinese control since 2012 after a standoff between Chinese and Philippine government vessels.
Trinidad said harassment by the Chinese should stop.
“Their illegal actions, their uncalled for, unprovoked actions should stop. We are not saying that is acceptable… It’s part of the environment that we are operating in and like what I said we are up to the challenge,” he said.
Trinidad also said the Chinese are harassing not only Philippine ships but also those of the US and Japan, among others.
Trinidad said the Chinese event activated the fire control systems of their ships against Japanese ships in the contested Senkaku islands. He said “in the rules of engagement, that is just one step away from firing your weapons.”
‘NORMAL’ INCIDENTS
Trinidad said the latest Chinese harassment at Ayungin Shoal is not as intense compared to the incidents in the 90s at the Chinese-occupied Mischief Reef.
“This is not the most intense situation that the Philippine Navy and the AFP has been into. In 1993-1994 in Mischief Reef, it was gray and gray (navy to navy),” he said.
“When China first occupied Mischief Reef, before they put up the fishermen shelters, before they had a reclamation, they stationed Navy ships inside Mischief Reef and they barred our ships from going in. There were a couple of standoffs in `93-94 between (Philippine) Navy and PLA (People’s Liberation Army) Navy ships. That was intense,” added Trinidad.
He said the recent harassments are “normal water cannoning incidents” that the Chinese also did against Philippine vessels in the past several months.
“What makes this special or different is the shattering of the glass and four of our personnel were injured so I don’t want to say that this is the most intense,” he said.
Trinidad said the Philippine Navy and Chinese Navy incidents at Mischief Reef were
Philippine Coast Guard for West Philippine Commodore Jay Tarriela disputed a report by the Chinese tabloid Global Times that prodding by the US for the Philippines to expose Chinese aggression in the WPS could provoke a third World War.
On X, Tarriela reiterated that Philippines “is not under any external pressure to expose China’s coercion and blatant violation of international law.”
Tarriela said any country will resist when its “sovereignty and sovereign rights are being taken away.”
“Likewise, China does not need any ‘push’ to blatantly violate international law. It has been their strategy from the very beginning to change the status quo by coercion and erode the established rules-based order,” he said.
BEIJING PROPOSALS
The Department of Foreign Affairs said it received several maritime-related proposals from Beijing last year regarding the WPS dispute but most are inimical to Philippine interests.
“While a few proposals were deemed somewhat workable, many of the remaining Chinese proposals were determined, after careful study, scrutiny and deliberation within the Philippine government, to be contrary to our national interests,” the DFA said in a statement.
It said in one of the proposals, Beijing insisted on actions that “would be deemed as acquiescence or recognition of China’s control and administration over the Second Thomas Shoal (Ayungin Shoal).”
“As Ayungin Shoal is a part of the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines, the proposal raised by China could not be considered by the Philippines without violating the Philippine Constitution or international laws,” it said.
The DFA said the proposals could not be considered without violating the 1987 Constitution or international laws, specifically the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the 2016 Arbitral Award.
The arbitral award junked China’s sweeping claims in the South China Sea, including parts claimed by the Philippines as its own and renamed West Philippine Sea, with the arbitral panel saying that it has no legal or historical basis.
Under the UNCLOS, the Philippines as a coastal state is entitled to have a 200-mile exclusive economic zone.
Manila and Beijing are signatories to UNCLOS.
The DFA issued the statement after news reports quoted an unnamed Chinese official as saying Beijing has presented 11 proposals to Manila to normalize the situation in disputed areas in the South China Sea, but the proposals were met with inaction by the Philippines.
The DFA said, “Upon receipt of the Chinese proposals, the Philippine government had immediately undertaken serious study and consideration of all of them. Instead of considering the Philippine counter-proposals, however, the Chinese side presented its own counter-proposals, which again did not reflect our interests, especially on issues such as the South China Sea.”
It said the issue was further discussed during the 8th Bilateral Consultation Meeting on the South China Sea held in Shanghai in January, pursuant to the agreement reached between President Marcos Jr. and President Xi Jinping in San Francisco in November 2023 to ease and manage tensions in the South China Sea.
The DFA also said it approached the confidential talks with “utmost sincerity and good faith.”
“We were, therefore, surprised by China’s disclosure of sensitive details of our bilateral negotiations,” it added. — With Ashzel Hachero
