The Philippines on Tuesday protested China’s decision to build a military garrison on Woody Reef in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) summoned China’s Ambassador to the Philippines Ma Keqing and handed her a diplomatic note that also objected to the arrival of a large Chinese fishing fleet near the disputed Spratly Islands in the West Philippine Sea.
Woody Reef is part of the Paracel Islands, which are contested by China and Vietnam. While the Philippines does not have territorial claims in the Paracels, DFA spokesperson Raul Hernandez said China’s plan to administer the Paracels and the Spratlys from the new city of Sansha was unacceptable.
China announced the creation of Sansha in June amid a territorial dispute with Vietnam, which had adopted a new maritime law that placed under Vietnamese sovereignty the Spratly Islands and the Paracel Islands.
China created Sansha for the administration of the Paracels and the Spratlys, including islands claimed by the Philippines.
Unacceptable
Hernandez said Sansha’s jurisdiction covered the Kalayaan Island Group in the Spratlys, which “is an integral part of the Philippine territory falling under the municipality of Kalayaan in Palawan province.”
“For this reason, the Philippines does not recognize Sansha City and the extent of its jurisdiction and considers recent measures taken by China as unacceptable,” Hernandez said.
On July 12, China announced the departure from Hainan of a fleet of 30 fishing vessels—the largest Chinese fishing expedition in recent years—for the Spratlys. The fleet arrived at Johnson South Reef, in a part of the Spratlys claimed by Vietnam, on July 15.
Philippine territory
The DFA said the Philippines protested China’s deployment of 29 fishing vessels, a cargo ship and two maritime ships near Kagitingan Reef and another vessel with bow number 934 near Zamora Reef on July 18.
Kagitingan Reef is internationally known as Fiery Cross Reef. Zamora Reef is the Philippines’ name for Subi Reef, which the country contests with China, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan.
Both reefs are part of the Spratly group of islands, islets, atolls and reefs in the West Philippine Sea believed to be rich in oil and natural gas deposits.
It is unclear whether the Chinese fishing vessels have crossed into Philippine waters, but the DFA said earlier that it was verifying the exact location of the Chinese fleet.
Garrison
Beijing refers to Woody Reef as Yongxing Island. On Monday, the Chinese defense ministry announced plans to build a garrison on Woody Reef.
The announcement came a month after Beijing designated Woody Reef as China’s administrative center for both the Paracel and the Spratly groups of islands.
China already has an airstrip on the reef. The airstrip is reportedly capable of handling all types of People’s Liberation Army planes.
In the diplomatic note handed to Ma, the DFA urged Beijing to “fully and sincerely abide by the spirit and letter of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-China Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea.”
“We hope that China as a responsible country will exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities that would complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace and stability in the region,” Hernandez said.
Call for unity
Meanwhile, Malacañang said Tuesday that it would like to believe that the nation was one with President Benigno Aquino in his government’s stand on its territorial dispute with China.
Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said that when the President, in his State of the Nation Address on Monday, called on the Filipinos to unite behind his government in the country’s territorial dispute with China in the West Philippine Sea, it did not mean that there were sectors that did not agree with the position he had taken.
“We are talking here of our country. I guess it’s safe to assume we are all for the Philippines,” Valte told reporters.
President Aquino also tried to assure the nation that his government was determined to find a solution to the dispute with China “acceptable to all.”
Standoff
Relations between China and the Philippines remain tense even after Manila temporarily stepped back from a maritime standoff with Beijing at Panatag Shoal (Scarborough Shoal) in mid-June.
The standoff, triggered by Chinese fishermen’s poaching sharks and collecting rare clams and corals at the shoal, began in early April. It temporarily ended when President Aquino ordered home two Philippine vessels due to stormy weather on June 15.
China called home its fishing vessels, but not its maritime ships. There were reports last week that Chinese fishing boats had returned to Panatag Shoal.
President Aquino threatened to send government vessels back to the shoal unless China recalled its ships and boats home. With reports from Christine O. Avendaño and AFP
Showing posts with label China Philippines news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label China Philippines news. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Philippines to bid out three West Philippine Sea blocs
MANILA, Philippines—The Philippines will bid out oil exploration contracts in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) despite recent tensions with China over conflicting territorial claims in those waters, an official said Wednesday.
The three blocs in the West Philippine Sea, off the coast of the western Philippine island of Palawan, are believed to be the most promising for oil and gas deposits, said Energy Undersecretary James Layug.
“All reserves in that area belong to the Philippines. We will only offer areas within our exclusive economic zone,” he said at the sidelines of an energy forum in Manila.
The area, known as the northwest Palawan basin, is just beside the Philippines’ existing natural gas fields, which already provide 40 percent of the electrical power of the main Philippine island of Luzon, said Layug.
“These are all beside our existing service contracts so there is no doubt that these areas belong to the Philippines,” he added.
He said historically Philippine energy exploration had the most success in these areas off Palawan, indicating the three new blocs might also hold large oil and gas reserves.
The exploration contracts for the three blocs will be bidded out on July 31, he said.
Tensions between the Philippines and China have recently risen due to conflicting claims over parts of the West Philippine Sea.
The focus of the latest conflict is the Scarborough Shoal, which the Philippines insists is well within its exclusive economic zone but which China claims along with most of the West Philippine Sea.
Another West Philippine Sea area, the potentially-oil-rich Reed Bank, is also due for development by the Philippines but has been claimed by China.
Last year, the Philippines accused China of harassing an oil exploration ship at Reed Bank.
Layug said China had not objected to the plans to bid out the contracts for the three blocs.
China claims nearly all of the West Philippine Sea even up to the coast of its neighbors. The Philippines has cited international law to bolster its claims.
Ministers and diplomats representing China and Southeast Asian countries including the Philippines were meanwhile Wednesday meeting at an ASEAN summit in Cambodia, working on a code of conduct designed to ease tensions in the South China Sea, but were struggling to reach agreement.
Read more China Philippines news here.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Philippines, China talking again
The Philippines and China are talking again, and they are trying to work out a temporary solution to their dispute over Scarborough Shoal, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said on Friday.
In a text message to the Inquirer, Del Rosario said the two sides resumed consultations earlier last week to break the stalemate.
The good news from Del Rosario came as Malacañang reiterated that the government had no hand in the anti-China protests in Manila and other capital cities around the world on Friday.
Hong Lei, spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, accused the Philippines on Friday of escalating tensions between the two countries by encouraging protests against China’s intrusion on Scarborough Shoal, a group of coral and rock formations in the South China Sea well within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
“It’s a wrong action that complicates and magnifies the issue,” Hong told Asian journalists in Beijing.
Hong said the Philippine side broke diplomatic contact “for a period of time” but Chinese officials kept in touch with their counterparts both in Beijing and in Manila, as China was committed to resolve the dispute through diplomacy.
Late on Friday, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Filipino and Chinese diplomats in Manila had resumed talks to break the deadlock over Scarborough Shoal.
The department did not disclose the negotiation points but going by China’s “requirements,” as Hong mentioned in his talk with journalists in Beijing, the consultations would lead to, at best, temporary agreements that would allow the two sides to disengage without losing face.
China’s demands, Hong said, were that Chinese public service ships at Scarborough Shoal—called Panatag Shoal and Bajo de Masinloc by the Philippines—not be disturbed, that Chinese fishing boats be left alone to go about their normal activities, and that Philippine vessels leave the shoal, which China calls Huangyan Island.
Face-off at the shoal
On Tuesday, the military reported that the number of Chinese vessels at Scarborough Shoal had increased to more than 30, from 14 last week.
China now has three big ships in the area, in addition to seven Chinese fishing vessels and 23 utility boats.
The Philippines has only two vessels in the lagoon, the BRP Edsa, a Coast Guard search-and-rescue ship, and the MCS 3001, a vessel belonging to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.
Not this early
The Philippines will never agree to those demands, although Del Rosario did not say how Manila was responding. But he indicated that both sides did not expect to reach a lasting solution to the dispute this early.
“A diplomatic result ending the current impasse in Bajo de Masinloc, which we hope can be achieved, will at best be a temporary one,” Del Rosario said. “Ultimately, we will need an overall solution.”
The Philippines has already decided to go for that by going to international courts and forums to force China to recognize its sovereignty over parts of the South China Sea—called West Philippine Sea by Manila—within its exclusive economic zone.
Legal track
According to Del Rosario, the Philippine side is “moving forward with the legal track as a durable solution to our disputes in the West Philippine Sea.”
Stressing the need to “pursue a peaceful resolution” of the conflict with China, he said the DFA would follow a three-track approach: political, through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations; legal, through United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) settlement; and diplomatic, through continuing consultations to defuse the current tensions at Scarborough Shoal.
Raul Hernandez, the DFA spokesperson, said the department would press ahead with the legal track. “As Secretary Del Rosario has said, the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (Itlos) would provide an impartial venue for ascertaining who between the Philippines and China has sovereign rights over the waters around Bajo de Masinloc and also around the Reed Bank area,” Hernandez said.
Rules-based approach
Del Rosario has repeatedly asserted that abiding by the rules set by the Unclos was the legitimate way of dealing with conflicting and overlapping claims in the West Philippine Sea.
In a statement on the 30th anniversary of the 1982 signing of the Unclos by 159 UN member states in Montego Bay, Jamaica, Del Rosario said the convention “has never been more important to the Philippines than today when overlapping maritime claims threaten as never before the peace and prosperity in our part of the world.”
“The Philippines believes that the rules-based approach in Unclos, together with the norms in the UN Charter and international law, are the way forward in addressing in a just, peaceful and lasting manner the maritime disputes in the West Philippine Sea,” Del Rosario said.
Great equalizer
Scarborough Shoal is located 220 kilometers west of Zambales, but China insists it is Chinese territory even though the nearest Chinese landmass is more than 500 kilometers away.
Last week, Del Rosario said the Philippines would unilaterally bring the conflict to Itlos following Beijing’s rejection of Manila’s proposal for international arbitration.
In a text message from Washington, D.C., Del Rosario said the DFA was preparing for the presentation of the dispute to the Itlos.
The tribunal is based in Hamburg, Germany.
He pointed out that Chinese ships were “engaged in illegal activities in Bajo de Masinloc.”
“The whole world knows that China has myriad more ships and aircraft than the Philippines. At day’s end, however, we hope to demonstrate that international law would be the great equalizer,” he emphasized. With a report from Christine O. Avendaño
More China Philippines news here.
In a text message to the Inquirer, Del Rosario said the two sides resumed consultations earlier last week to break the stalemate.
The good news from Del Rosario came as Malacañang reiterated that the government had no hand in the anti-China protests in Manila and other capital cities around the world on Friday.
Hong Lei, spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, accused the Philippines on Friday of escalating tensions between the two countries by encouraging protests against China’s intrusion on Scarborough Shoal, a group of coral and rock formations in the South China Sea well within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
“It’s a wrong action that complicates and magnifies the issue,” Hong told Asian journalists in Beijing.
Hong said the Philippine side broke diplomatic contact “for a period of time” but Chinese officials kept in touch with their counterparts both in Beijing and in Manila, as China was committed to resolve the dispute through diplomacy.
Late on Friday, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Filipino and Chinese diplomats in Manila had resumed talks to break the deadlock over Scarborough Shoal.
The department did not disclose the negotiation points but going by China’s “requirements,” as Hong mentioned in his talk with journalists in Beijing, the consultations would lead to, at best, temporary agreements that would allow the two sides to disengage without losing face.
China’s demands, Hong said, were that Chinese public service ships at Scarborough Shoal—called Panatag Shoal and Bajo de Masinloc by the Philippines—not be disturbed, that Chinese fishing boats be left alone to go about their normal activities, and that Philippine vessels leave the shoal, which China calls Huangyan Island.
Face-off at the shoal
On Tuesday, the military reported that the number of Chinese vessels at Scarborough Shoal had increased to more than 30, from 14 last week.
China now has three big ships in the area, in addition to seven Chinese fishing vessels and 23 utility boats.
The Philippines has only two vessels in the lagoon, the BRP Edsa, a Coast Guard search-and-rescue ship, and the MCS 3001, a vessel belonging to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.
Not this early
The Philippines will never agree to those demands, although Del Rosario did not say how Manila was responding. But he indicated that both sides did not expect to reach a lasting solution to the dispute this early.
“A diplomatic result ending the current impasse in Bajo de Masinloc, which we hope can be achieved, will at best be a temporary one,” Del Rosario said. “Ultimately, we will need an overall solution.”
The Philippines has already decided to go for that by going to international courts and forums to force China to recognize its sovereignty over parts of the South China Sea—called West Philippine Sea by Manila—within its exclusive economic zone.
Legal track
According to Del Rosario, the Philippine side is “moving forward with the legal track as a durable solution to our disputes in the West Philippine Sea.”
Stressing the need to “pursue a peaceful resolution” of the conflict with China, he said the DFA would follow a three-track approach: political, through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations; legal, through United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) settlement; and diplomatic, through continuing consultations to defuse the current tensions at Scarborough Shoal.
Raul Hernandez, the DFA spokesperson, said the department would press ahead with the legal track. “As Secretary Del Rosario has said, the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (Itlos) would provide an impartial venue for ascertaining who between the Philippines and China has sovereign rights over the waters around Bajo de Masinloc and also around the Reed Bank area,” Hernandez said.
Rules-based approach
Del Rosario has repeatedly asserted that abiding by the rules set by the Unclos was the legitimate way of dealing with conflicting and overlapping claims in the West Philippine Sea.
In a statement on the 30th anniversary of the 1982 signing of the Unclos by 159 UN member states in Montego Bay, Jamaica, Del Rosario said the convention “has never been more important to the Philippines than today when overlapping maritime claims threaten as never before the peace and prosperity in our part of the world.”
“The Philippines believes that the rules-based approach in Unclos, together with the norms in the UN Charter and international law, are the way forward in addressing in a just, peaceful and lasting manner the maritime disputes in the West Philippine Sea,” Del Rosario said.
Great equalizer
Scarborough Shoal is located 220 kilometers west of Zambales, but China insists it is Chinese territory even though the nearest Chinese landmass is more than 500 kilometers away.
Last week, Del Rosario said the Philippines would unilaterally bring the conflict to Itlos following Beijing’s rejection of Manila’s proposal for international arbitration.
In a text message from Washington, D.C., Del Rosario said the DFA was preparing for the presentation of the dispute to the Itlos.
The tribunal is based in Hamburg, Germany.
“The whole world knows that China has myriad more ships and aircraft than the Philippines. At day’s end, however, we hope to demonstrate that international law would be the great equalizer,” he emphasized. With a report from Christine O. Avendaño
More China Philippines news here.
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