THE PHILIPPINES needs to be “very very cautious” about becoming a member of China’s Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), President Benigno S. C. Aquino III said at a conference in Japan on Wednesday, with the government obliged to consider Beijing’s behavior in the Scarborough Shoal crisis of 2012, during which the Export-Import Bank of China (China EximBank) called in a loan that was to fund a rail line to Clark International Airport.
Coast Guard personnel should be deployed to the disputed Scarborough (Panatag) Shoal if the government wants to assert Philippine presence in the area being claimed by China as its own, a lawmaker said Wednesday. ACT-Teachers party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio said the Coast Guard’s presence at the shoal might deter Chinese authorities from harassing Filipino fishermen in the disputed waters. “The mere presence of government forces, even civilian forces there, will change the [situation] and can make the Chinese forces think twice before doing what they did,” Tinio said in a press briefing. “Siyempre dahil mag-isa lang, yung mga mangingisda natin doon, mas madaling nagawa yung pag-bomba sa kanila ng water cannon. Pero kung may puwersa ng gobyerno natin doon, baka maiba yung situwasyon,” he added. Armed Forces chief Gen. Emmanuel Bautista revealed on Monday that a Chinese coast guard vessel drove away two Filipino fishing vessels from the area last January 27 by firing water cannons at them. President Benigno Aquino III has demanded an explanation from China regarding the incident and directed the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to file a “diplomatic message.” The Chinese Embassy in Manila, however, rejected the Philippine protest and declared it has “indisputable sovereignty” over the waters where the incident occurred. The Philippine government has declared that the shoal, which is facing the South China Sea, is within the country’s exclusive economic zone as mandated by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea – an agreement signed by 163 nations, including Read More …
China’s Hainan province has established a maritime fishery resource breeding and research base in a disputed area of the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea). A report on China’s Xinhua news agency said the facility was established in sea waters of the Zhongsha Islands, which China claims includes Scarborough Shoal. Li Xiangmin, director of the Hainan provincial aquaculture research institute, said the base is located in the Manbu Ansha area, a submerged shoal in the Zhongsha Islands. It covers a sea area of 625 hectares, he said. China earlier said the Zhongsha Islands include Scarborough Shoal, which China refers to as Huangyan Island but which the Philippines calls Bajo de Masinloc. Xinhua said the new base is the “first approved scientific program since Sansha City was officially established in July 2012.” Li said aquaculture researchers will put into the sea for research some 20,000 grouper fry, 20,000 spats of pearl oysters, 20,000 spats of pteria penguin, a genus of winged oyster, and 20,000 pieces of red seaweeds eucheuma. Researchers will also conduct field investigation and scientific research activities on the weather, hydrological and topographic conditions, maritime species, submarine grassland and coral reefs in Manbu Ansha in the next three days. Sansha The Xinhua report said Sansha, which has 1,000 residents, was set up to administer some 2.6 million square kilometers of islands, coastal areas and territorial seas. But the Philippines claimed Filipinos had settled in the islands where Sansha stands as early as 1978. “Yung ating local government matagal na, Read More …