China bent on pushing sea claim – think tank

ASIAN Century Philippines Strategic Studies, a Manila-based think tank, said the August 5 water cannon incident between Chinese and Filipino vessels in the disputed West Philippine Sea highlights China's uncompromising initiative to claim the area. The think tank's president Herman Tiu Laurel told The Manila Times that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has realized the gravity of the situation, prompting him to issue a statement countering earlier declarations by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS) that the 2016 ruling of the Arbitral Tribunal in The Hague has made the Ayungin Shoal part of the Philippines' exclusive economic zone. "President Marcos acknowledged that the Ayungin Shoal is a 'gray area' disputed by China and the Philippines which is a laudable sense of realism," said Laurel. "They forget that it's the President who is the architect of Philippine foreign policy," said Laurel. Laurel added that China, through its embassy in Manila, is pushing for the two countries to "meet halfway" and to avoid "countries outside the region to meddle with, sow discord and provoke conflicts." "There is a strong sense among some analysts that the US had an invisible hand in stoking the episode and orchestrating the tsunami of propaganda to inflame the public, prepare the ground for the PCG-US Coast Guard joint maritime patrols later the year, and support the expansion of the [Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement]," he pointed out. In 1999, the Philippines deliberately ran the BRP Sierra Madre aground on Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands to serve as an outpost of the Philippine Marine Corps and assert the country's sovereignty in the disputed territory. Since then, China has repeatedly demanded that the ship be removed from the area. Laurel said that since 2011, there has been an increasing effort to convert the deteriorating BRP Sierra Madre into a more permanent installation. He added that Philippine ships reportedly have been delivering not only food, water, fuel and other supplies to the Filipino troops in the area but construction materials as well. "This is the reason why on August 5, the Chinese vessels stopped the delivery of construction materials which the Philippines would use to reconstruct its ship used as an anchor for its claim," Laurel said.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PCG: China’s bullying in West Philippine Sea undermines international law --- Ghio Ong - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — Letting China sustain its aggression in the West Philippine Sea would make other countries doubt the strength of international law currently being asserted by the Philippines, Commodore Jay Tarriela of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said. “Allowing China to blatantly disregard the established rules-based order threatens the very foundation that we all depend on,” he wrote in a post on X last Tuesday. He added, “If we permit this, countries worldwide may forget why this order was created in the first place. Nations could begin to doubt the significance of adhering to international law if powerful bullies can easily violate it.” Tarriela also said defiance of other countries to a rules-based order would result in the prevalence of cruelty. He wrote, “This could lead us back to a time when might makes right, undermining the global structures that keep human greed, savagery and barbarism in check. Such a scenario would not only invite challenges from aggressive ...
Read more

China ships maintain presence in key West Philippine Sea areas --- Michael Punongbayan - The Philippine Star

STAR / Michael Varcas MANILA, Philippines — While Chinese vessels in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) have decreased in number, they have maintained a presence in three key land features where naval and coast guard ships have intensified operations in the past seven days, according to the Philippine Navy. Latest monitoring by the Philippine Navy showed armed ships of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) maintaining a menacing presence around the grounded BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal, Panatag Shoal and Escoda Shoal. According to the Philippine Navy, there are 17 Chinese military vessels and 28 China Coast Guard (CCG) boats spotted inside the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) between Sept. 23 and 30, or one vessel more than in the previous week Sept.17-23. Five of the warships were seen roaming around the vicinity of Escoda Shoal, along with 10 CCG vessels and 12 maritime militia vessels (MMVs). There are also two PLAN ships in Ayungin Shoal as well as 10 CCG boats and 12...
Read more

Social media seen as cause of rising intermarriages --- Helen Flores - The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) sees social media as the main reason for the rising number of Filipinos marrying or becoming partners of foreign nationals. In 2022, the CFO recorded 6,854 marriages or partnerships with foreign nationals, a 40.1 percent increase from the 4,891 “intermarriages” recorded in 2021. “First of all, what we see in the increase in the marriage rate of Filipinos or Filipinos with foreign partners is because of social media, (that) is number one; matchings; letters, introduction of their friends,” CFO chairperson Romulo Arugay said at the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon public briefing yesterday. Arugay said the agency has been registering a high number of intermarriages since 2007, but the figures went down during the COVID-19 pandemic. From over 6,500 Filipinos who married foreign nationals, only 600 are men, he said. Most of them are married to Americans, Japanese, Germans, Canadians and Australians, Arugay said. Arugay warned Fi...
Read more