BY Victor Reyes and Ashzel Hachero
DEFENSE Secretary Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro Jr said the Philippines will conduct more and larger military activities with its foreign allies this year in the West Philippine Sea in the South China Sea amid increasing Chinese aggression in the area.
Teodoro also said the military is embarking on the implementation of Phase 3 of the AFP modernization program which he said will improve the military’s maritime domain awareness.
The Philippines has filed a diplomatic protest against recent incidents in the West Philippine Sea (WPS). Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary and spokesperson Teresita Daza said the filing of the note verbale is the fourth diplomatic protest lodged this year. The latest incident involves Chinese harassment of Filipino fishermen at Scarborough Shoal, when the China Coast Guard told the fishermen to leave the area and to return to the sea the shells they have gathered.
Teodoro, at a forum Tuesday night organized by the Manila Overseas Press Club, advised Filipino fishermen not to go solo when fishing at the Scarborough Shoal.
“There is strength numbers and there is enough catch for all as long as you are unimpeded,” said Teodoro.
On the larger military activities with allies, Teodoro said, “We will increase the tempo of our activities with allies and other major partners not only in the West Philippine Sea but in other areas of the country.”
He did not elaborate although the Philippine military has conducted joint patrols with the United States and with Australia to assert the Philippines’ rights in the West Philippine Sea.
“We will exercise these partnerships to the full and it is within our unquestionable right to do so as a sovereign country,” he said.
Teodoro said “several countries are interested in joining us,” noting the recent signing of defense cooperation with United Kingdom and Canada.
Teodoro also noted the reciprocal access agreement being worked out with Japan, which he said may be signed within the first quarter of the year.
“These commitments and these activities are based on a common understanding of the value of a rules-based international order, the primacy of UNCLOS and the 2016 arbitral award,” said Teodoro.
UNCLOS or the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea provides coastal states like the Philippines a 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
Manila calls the portion of the South China Sea that is within its EEZ as the West Philippine Sea, where it has had a series of confrontations with China with both trading accusations of provoking conflict.
In addition to the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei claim parts of the South China Sea disputed by China, which claims almost all of the sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016 said China’s claims had no legal basis, a ruling Beijing rejects.
China and the Philippines agreed last week to improve maritime communication and to properly manage conflicts and differences in the South China Sea through friendly talks.
Daza said aside from the four notes verbale filed this year, 66 were filed last year.
Daza did not state or provide details on what prompted the filing of the latest note verbale.
Since 2020, the DFA has lodged over 400 protests against China, protesting the harassment of Filipino naval and coast guard vessels as well as fishermen in the WPS.
Though the DFA has yet to provide details on the filing of the latest diplomatic protest, the Philippine Coast Guard earlier said that Chinese coast guard personnel harassed Filipino fishermen on January 12.
ENCROACHMENT
Teodoro said there is an alignment of interests between Philippines and its allies. He said such alignments are “vital not to secure our country’s exclusive economic zone and all its resources for us but more importantly to secure them for the future generations.”
He said there is a need to secure these resources, noting the Philippines is a small country with a growing population.
“If we do not stand up to the illegal and unilateral encroachment of these resources through a distorted nine or 10-dash line, which nobody in the world accepts, then we will be guilty of acquiescence and we can be open to a rewriting of international law through constant practice by a stronger power, which the Marcos administration has sworn not to do,” said Teodoro, referring to China’s aggression in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) and its basis for claiming the entire South China Sea.
Teodoro said the defense department is committed “to this principled stand.” He said the Philippine government is cognizant of the possible “spillover effects.”
“But it is not our fault (if there will be spillover effects). We are not the ones encroaching on the exclusive economic zone of another country,” he added.
“The encroacher has a vast area of sea and if they ask us to meet them halfway when they have already eaten three-fourths of the way, into our exclusive economic zone, where is the fairness in that? Whose fooling who? And if there are spillover effects we are not to blame,” said Teodoro.
Teodoro said the Philippine government does not want a fight, adding it is for peace but peace must be based on “international law and sustainability.”
“It cannot be based on formless dialogue where one party does not cease to expand its area of influence illegally to the detriment of a smaller country,” he said.
ARMED CONFLICT
Teodoro said his nightmare scenario in the WPS is the occurrence of an “armed conflict.”
“Everybody fears an armed conflict. No sane person would not fear an armed conflict,” he said.
On how close an armed conflict to breaking out is, Teodoro said the Philippines is acting responsibly “so we are not close.”
“But I cannot speak for the other party. But I do hope that there is some sanity and some sincerity behind the words of peaceful intent to us to avoid an armed conflict,” he said.
While stressing the government does not want an armed conflict, Teodoro said it cannot just accept “the immediate and unconscionable encroachments into what rightfully belongs to the future generations of Philippines.”
Teodoro said they are not considering China as an enemy but merely a “protagonist.”
“We are not fighting over something but they are getting something that belongs to us,” he said. — With Reuters
