Latest PH move is over dangerous maneuver
GOVERNMENT has lodged a diplomatic protest with China for a recent incident involving a dangerous maneuver by a Chinese Coast Guard vessel near a Philippine counterpart vessel in the disputed Scarborough Shoal off Zambales, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr said yesterday.
“It can always happen that vessels of the different countries, especially from Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and other claimant countries and China, will get into close encounters simply because we have conflicting claims,” Esperon, concurrent chairman of the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea, said in mixed Filipino and English in an interview with reporters in Samar.
“There may be counter-claims but we, as a nation, will stand by our established sovereign rights and sovereignty over the area,” Esperon also said.
The shoal, also known as Bajo de Masinloc and Panatag Shoal, is about 120 nautical miles from Iba, Zambales. It is under the de facto control of China which has maintained steady coast guard presence in the area since a 2012 standoff with Philippine vessels.
On Sunday, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) reported that a Chinese Coast Guard vessel made a close-distance maneuver against one of its vessels, BRP Malabrigo, during a routine patrol last March 2.
It was the fourth time since May last year that a Chinese Coast Guard vessel made a risky move against Philippine vessels. The PCG said the Chinese moves in those four incidents “increased the risk of collision.”
Esperon said the Department of Foreign Affairs have been filing diplomatic protests against China’s acts of aggression in the West Philippine Sea as part of the government’s approach to peacefully resolve the territorial dispute.
Asked if the government has taken other actions other than diplomatic protest in connection with the latest incident, Esperon said the government has been beefing up its presence at the shoal, through the Philippine Coast Guard and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.
“Sinasabi naman natin that’s part of our territory. (We’ve been saying that’s part of our territory),” said Esperon of the shoal.
On Monday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said China has sovereign rights over the shoal.
Wang expressed hope Philippine ships will respect China’s rights and avoid interfering with patrol and law enforcement operations of the Chinese Coast Guard in the area.
The Philippines maintained it has sovereign rights and jurisdiction over Scarborough Shoal.
“The Philippine position is, we continue to exercise full sovereignty over Bajo de Masinloc and its territorial sea, as well as sovereign rights and jurisdiction over the surrounding EEZ and continental shelf,” said Communications Secretary and acting presidential spokesman Martin Andanar.
VIETNAM ACTIVITIES
Esperon sought to downplay reports about Vietnam’s improvement of facilities in its occupied areas in the West Philippine Sea. “Yes, there have been reports about Vietnam improving their stations,” he said.
Esperon likened these Vietnamese improvements to the upgrade the Philippine facilities in Pag-asa Island.
“Yung ating 30 hectares na Pag-asa Island, meron tayong ginagawang improvement (in our 30-hectare Pag-asa Island, we doing improvement) in the same manner that Vietnam is doing a lot of improvement,” he said.
He said the improvement is totally different from China’s island-building activities in the West Philippine Sea.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has filed at least 260 diplomatic protests against Chinese activities in the West Philippine Sea since 2016.
But it has has yet to issue an official statement on the latest Scarborough incident.
The DFA summoned Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian early this month to asked for an explanation on the “lingering” presence of a People’s Liberation Army Navy electronic surveillance vessel in the country’s archipelagic waters, particularly in the Sulu Sea.
The Chinese foreign ministry said the sailing of the PLAN vessel is an exercise of the right of innocent passage guaranteed under the United Nation Convention on the Law of the Sea.
In March last year, the DFA filed a diplomatic protest to Beijing over the swarming of more than a hundred Chinese fishing vessels near the Julian Felipe Reef.
In November, the DFA also protested when a Chinese Coast Guard vessel blocked and used water cannon on two Philippine boats that were en route to resupply Filipino troops who are stationed at the Ayungin Shoal.
Beijing and Manila have been locked in a long-standing maritime territorial dispute, with the latter complaining about the incursion of Chinese vessels in its exclusive economic zone.
In 2013, the then Aquino administration filed a case against China before the Permanent Court of Arbitration, challenging its massive claims of nearly the entire South China Sea, including the West Philippine Sea.
In 2016, the arbitral tribunal ruled in favor of Manila and dismissed Beijing’s nine-dash line claim. However, China refused to honor the arbitral ruling and insisted on bilateral talks to address the dispute. — With Ashzel Hachero and Jocelyn Montemayor
