NATIONAL Security Adviser Eduardo Año and his American counterpart, Jake Sullivan, expressed “grave concerns” over two recent incidents of harassment by China in the West Philippine Sea, including last Monday’s dangerous maneuver that led to the damage of two vessels of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG).
The two officials spoke by phone on Tuesday and “exchanged information on the current maritime security situation in the region,” the National Security Council (NSC) said in a statement.
It said Año and Sullivan “particularly raised grave concerns on the recent illegal, aggressive and dangerous actions” of China’s People’s Liberation Army-Air Force and its Coast Guard, specifically the harassment of a Philippine Air Force aircraft doing routine maritime patrol over Scarborough Shoal and of the two PCG vessels near Escoda Shoal.
On August 8, two Chinese multi-role fighters executed “dangerous maneuver” and flares in the path PAF’s NC-212i aircraft over Scarborough Shoal, endangering the lives of the Filipino pilots and crew. On August 19, two Chinese Coast Guard vessels harassed two PCG vessels near Escoda Shoal, leaving huge holes in the Philippine government vessels which were out to deliver supplies to troops at two Philippine-occupied islands.
The statement said Año, during his conversation with Sullivan, underscored the Philippines’ “unassailable rights in the West Philippine Sea based on international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and the 2016 Arbitral Award.”
“He (Año) also thanked the United States government for the unremitting support and iron clad commitment to the Philippines-United States alliance,” the statement added.
It said Sullivan lauded the conduct of a recent exercise between the PCG and the Vietnamese Coast Guard in Manila Bay and the Philippines’ “efforts to expand the conduct of maritime cooperative activities with like-minded countries in the region and beyond.”
“The two NSAs (national security advisers/advisors) look forward to the implementation of strategic priorities to accelerate the Philippines’ capability development and to continuously modernize the alliance,” the statement added.
Senate majority leader Francis Tolentino yesterday urged government to convene the National Security Council to allow the administration to come up with clear response after Monday’s incident at Escoda Shoal.
“What happened was an aggravated action. The convening of the NSC will allow the country to formulate a more focused response. We can get the opinion of the coast guard, Philippine Navy, and DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs). This (incident involves) one of the highest forms of aggravated maritime intentional allision and collision,” said Tolentino, chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Maritime and Admiralty Zones.
He said the government must also file claims for damage based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas.
“The owner of the ship, whether state-owned or private, can be held accountable for what happened,” he added.
He also said he will bring up with the Office of the Solicitor General and the Department of Justice his proposal for the creation of a specialized team of lawyers that will handle maritime cases, which he foresees will recur.
“The OSG and DOJ should create a specialized team of maritime lawyers to handle these cases. The ramming incident in Escoda won’t be the last. We cannot assign this task to fiscals because these cases involve specialized aspects of international law and maritime law,” he said. — With Raymond Africa
