GOVERNMENT is crafting a new Philippine map showing the country’s entitlements in the West Philippine Sea in the South China Sea, a National Security Council (NSC) official said yesterday.
NSC Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya made the remarks about two weeks after China released an updated map that showed its 10-dash line claim in the South China Sea.
“This is something that we have been working on already,” said Malaya, who is also spokesman of the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS), during a TV interview.
“We hope to be able to make an announcement very soon insofar as a new Philippine map is concerned… We are seriously considering it and we already have something in the works,” said Malaya.
Malaya said the new Philippine map will conform to the United Convention on the Law of the Sea that provides coastal states like the Philippines a 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
Some of the areas being occupied and claimed by China in the West Philippine Sea are within the Philippines’ EEZ.
The Chinese have harassed three military resupply missions to the Philippine-occupied Ayungin Shoal since last month. Chinese officials said they have indisputable rights to the shoal, which is about 108 nautical miles from Rizal, Palawan.
Malaya said the new Philippine map will also conform to the 2016 ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration that invalidated China’s excessive claim in the South China Sea and recognized Philippine rights to its EEZ.
Pressed for details, he said, “I can’t make an announcement right now because there are some approval process that we have to undergo.”
“But maybe what I can say is that this new map will conform to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and also to the 2016 arbitral ruling,” he said.
China does not recognize the arbitral ruling.
Malaya said the new map may also reflect the award in relation to Benham Rise or Philippine Rise, a vast undersea region east of Luzon.
The UN Commission of the Continental Shelf approved in 2012 the Philippine claim and declared Benham Rise as the Philippines’ extended continental shelf.
NOT FISHING VESSELS
On the involvement of Chinese fishing vessels or maritime militia vessels in the harassment of Philippine vessels near Ayungin Shoal, Malaya said their “true colors” have been exposed.
Malaya said these vessels are used only for “swarming activities” in contested features in the West Philippine Sea.
“But now, we see that their true colors have been bared to the world – that they are not fishing vessels. They are in fact part of the structure of the Chinese communist party of the Chinese government and they are instruments of Chinese power in the West Philippine Sea,” he said.
Malaya said the NTF-WPS has “a lot of options on the table” on how to address the continuing presence of the Chinese maritime militia vessels in the West Philippine Sea.
“One option is course is to increase also our number of ships patrolling the West Philippine Sea, both gray (Navy) ships and white (Philippine Coast Guard) ships,” he said.
“There are a lot of options on the table which I cannot disclose right but we are also are considering a change of strategy,” he added.
Malaya said the government will not stop fighting “for what is ours and we will continue of course to supply our troops of needed supplies and provisions in Ayungin Shoal.”
“We are not backing down. The Philippines is not backing down because our maritime entitlements are clear and we have to supply the existing garrison aboard the BRP Sierra Madre,” said Malaya.
Filipino troops manning the shoal are staying inside the rusting Sierra Madre which was grounded at the shoal in 1999 to serve as a military outpost.
TIKTOK USE
On a plan to ban the use of social media platform TikTok among uniformed personnel and employees of agencies involved in national security, Malaya said a team has been formed to make a study.
Malaya first revealed the plan last Saturday, noting that the Chinese-owned app can be used by China to monitor the movement of military personnel and members of the security sector.
“There is a team that has been organized in the National Security Council to look into data surveillance because TikTok has the capacity to determine a person’s location through location services,” he said.
“It can also look at your interaction and connections and entirely your behavior so it has an ability to compromise national security,” he added.
Malaya said it will be a “serious breach of national security” if the Chinese can indeed track the whereabouts of military personnel and intelligence personnel of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) through TikTok.
If the plan pushes through, the ban will cover not only military but also members of the Philippine Coast Guard, PNP, jail and fire bureaus, and government agencies involved in national security like the NSC and NICA.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said 43 protests have been filed so far against China’s aggressive activities in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) since January this year.
DFA spokesperson Teresita Daza did not say the form of protest filed — whether a demarche, a note verbal, or a diplomatic protest.
A demarche is a formal diplomatic representation where a government’s official position is conveyed by its diplomatic mission to persuade, inform, or protest actions to a foreign government while a diplomatic protest is an outright formal expression of displeasure or disagreement towards another country’s action, with the aim of urging that government to halt or change its policy or violation.
A note verbale is a brief diplomatic note typically used to exchange routine matters or administration between embassies and host foreign ministries.
Another form of protest is summoning an ambassador via a note verbale to express displeasure and to warn against possible repercussions of a nation’s act or policy.
Since 2020, the DFA has lodged over 400 protests against China over the harassment of Filipino naval and coast guard vessels as well as fishermen in the WPS.
The most recent diplomatic protest lodged by the DFA against Beijing was over the August 5 incident when Chinese Coast Guard ships blocked and turned its water cannons on Philippine Coast Guard vessels escorting a resupply mission to Filipino troops at the Ayungin Shoal.
The DFA earlier said the presence of the Filipino troops in Ayungin Shoal on board the grounded navy ship BRP Sierra Madre is in accord with international law since it is part of the country’s EEZ.
The Philippines, Vietnam, China, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan are claiming parts, or in the case of Beijing, nearly the whole South China Sea (SCS), contributing to tension in the area.
All, except Brunei, have stationed troops in the islands they are claiming. — With Ashzel Hachero
