Philippines ‘vigilantly’ monitoring alleged Chinese harassment in disputed waters

Benar News

The Philippine government said in late January 2023 that it was “vigilantly” monitoring developments in the South China Sea and investigating a recent incident where a Chinese coast guard ship allegedly harassed local fishermen near a Philippine-occupied shoal.

The encounter occurred January 9, when the crew of a fishing boat reported that a Chinese ship and a smaller boat drove them away from waters near Ayungin Shoal, also known as Second Thomas Shoal, according to the Philippine Coast Guard.

“Ayungin Shoal is part of the exclusive economic zone [EEZ] and continental shelf of the Philippines. The Philippines is entitled to exercise sovereign rights and jurisdiction in the area, without any intervention from another country,” the nation’s Department of Foreign Affairs said in a January 24 statement.

“Filipino fishermen are free to exercise their rights and take whatever they are due under Philippine and international law, particularly the 1982 UNCLOS [United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea] and the final and binding 2016 Arbitral Award,” it said, referring to an international tribunal ruling that invalidated the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) arbitrary and expansive claims to the South China Sea.

The Foreign Affairs Department said pending reports on the incident by local law enforcement agencies would “serve as a basis for diplomatic action on the incident.”

“The department vigilantly monitors any developments in the West Philippine Sea,” it said, using the Philippine name for areas within the nation’s EEZ in the South China Sea. (Pictured: A Philippine Coast Guard vessel patrols near a Chinese coast guard ship in the South China Sea in March 2022.)

The Chinese embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The shoal, which is about 320 kilometers from the port city of Puerto Princesa in the western Philippines’ Palawan province, is one of nine Philippine-occupied areas in the disputed waters. The Philippines maintains a small contingent of Marines aboard the BRP Sierra Madre, a World War-II era ship that was deliberately run aground in the 1990s.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said that during his state visit to China in early January 2023, the nations agreed to use a hotline to discuss maritime tensions. He said Manila used the hotline to raise the recent incident with Beijing.

“But it does not preclude us from continuing to make protests and continuing to send note verbales concerning this,” Marcos said January 23, referring to diplomatic notes.

Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Artemio Abu confirmed that the fishermen “were being shadowed” and that the Philippines responded by intensifying its assets near the shoal.

“We assure our Filipino fishermen that they are protected and secured through our constant presence,” Abu said in a television interview.

He said Coast Guard leaders would raise concerns with their Chinese counterparts during “high-level talks.”

“We really need to coordinate well with the national leadership. It has to be communicated down to the frontlines,” Abu said.

In 2022, the Philippines carried out at least 10 resupply missions to the Sierra Madre without incident, apart from reports of the Chinese coast guard issuing verbal challenges.

In March 2014, a boat carrying supplies and journalists to Ayungin evaded a Chinese coast guard blockade during a two-hour standoff.

IMAGE CREDIT: PHILIPPINE COAST GUARD VIA THE ASSOCIATED PRESS