Manila to continue resupply missions in S. China Sea, won’t escalate tension

PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. on Tuesday said the Philippines would continue its resupply missions in the South China Sea without the need to deploy the navy, despite a recent incident with Chinese vessels.

“We are not at war, we don’t need navy warships,” he told reporters in Bulacan province. “All we are doing is resupplying our fishermen, protecting our territorial rights.”

At the weekend, Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tristan Tarriela told a forum that deploying a warship could be a “policy option” for the Marcos government to deter Chinese harassment of fishermen, and Beijing blocking resupply missions to a disputed shoal in the waterway.

“We will never be part of an escalation in the West Philippine Sea,” Mr. Marcos said, referring to areas of the waterway within the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). “It will be provocative and will be seen as an escalation; we don’t do that.”

He added that the government would continue supporting Filipino fishermen.

On Dec. 4, Chinese Coast Guard vessels fired a water cannon and side-swiped a Manila Fishery bureau boat transporting supplies to Filipino fishermen operating near Scarborough Shoal, a prime fishing patch, according to Philippine officials.

Philippine Coast Guard vessels also faced “blocking, shadowing and dangerous maneuvers” from a Chinese navy vessel.

The Philippines will not deploy its own navy warships in the area to prevent provocation and escalation, Mr. Marcos said.

The Philippines filed a diplomatic protest against China, which claims almost all of the South China Sea. The Philippines under Mr. Marcos has filed 193 diplomatic protests over China’s actions in the South China Sea, 60 of which were filed this year, Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ma. Teresita C. Daza told reporters in a WhatsApp message last week.

The Chinese Embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment. China’s coast guard last week said Philippine ships “dangerously approached” Beijing’s territorial waters around the Scarborough Shoal.

Meanwhile, Tokyo, Washington and Manila reaffirmed their opposition to “any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force” in the South China Sea, the Japanese Embassy in Manila said in a statement, citing high-ranking diplomats, coast guard and military officials at a maritime dialogue in Tokyo.

The Philippines held maritime drills with the US and Japan within its exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea, its military said on Friday, two days after a maritime confrontation with Beijing around Scarborough Shoal.

The drills, which brought together a US Navy P-8A Poseidon aircraft, Philippine Navy ship BRP Andres Bonifacio and a small C-90 plane, and Japan’s Murasame-class destroyer JS Samidare, are the Philippines’ latest round of exercises with allies this year in the face of an increasingly assertive China.

The exercises were conducted “in a manner that is consistent with international law, and with due regard for the safety of navigation, and the rights and interests of other states,” the Armed Forces of the Philippines and US Indo-Pacific Command said in separate statements.

On Dec. 4, the Philippines accused Chinese Coast Guard vessels of firing water cannons and side-swiping one of its boats while expressing alarm over the presence at the shoal of a Chinese Navy vessel which it said blocked and shadowed its coast guard ships, in what it described as a “steep escalation and provocation.”

China, which claims almost all of the South China Sea, including Scarborough Shoal, maintains that its actions are lawful.

Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, The Philippines and Vietnam all claim parts of the sea. Tensions have risen amid concern China’s expansive claims encroach on their exclusive economic zones.

EEZs extend 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from a country’s coast and allow it sovereign rights to explore and exploit the natural resources in the water and on the ocean floor.

China has rejected a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that its claims have no basis under international law.

Sovereignty over Scarborough Shoal has never been established, but the tribunal ruled that China’s blockade there violated international law and that the area is a traditional fishing ground used by fishermen of many nationalities. — John Victor D. Ordoñez with Reuters