Philippines has ‘right’ to defend its territory like China – Palace

 News
Mar 092014
 
MANILA – The Philippines also has the right to defend every inch of its territory, President Benigno Aquino’s spokesman said on Sunday, after China made a similar warning.

Spokesman Herminio Coloma’s remarks came after China’s foreign minister Wang Yi said on Saturday said his country would vigorously defend its sovereignty against “unreasonable demands from smaller countries”.

Although he was referring to Japan, which has its own territorial dispute with China, his remarks could also cover China’s other territorial dispute with the Philippines and other countries over parts of the South China Sea.

“It is the right of every country to defend its national territory. That is also the principle we are following,” Coloma told reporters, commenting on the Chinese minister’s remarks.

Coloma added that the Philippines was basing its position on the principles of international law like the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea or UNCLOS.

The Philippines and China, along with Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam are all claimants to parts of the South China Sea, a major sea lane and rich fishing ground which is believed to sit on vast mineral deposits.

The Philippines has also expressed growing concern at the increased aggressiveness of the Chinese in pressing their claim to almost all of the waters, even up to the coasts of its neighbors.

The Philippine government has sought UN arbitration under UNCLOS to settle the dispute but China has rejected the move.

Last month the Philippines lodged a protest after the Chinese coast guard allegedly attacked Filipino fishermen off a disputed South China Sea shoal with water cannon on January 27. Beijing rejected the protest. — Agence France-Presse

2 Coast Guard ships ready to guard Panatag Shoal on gov’t go-signal

 News
Mar 032014
 
2 Coast Guard ships ready to guard Panatag Shoal on gov’t go-signal

AFP FILE PHOTO MANILA, Philippines — Not a single Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) vessel has been deployed to Panatag Shoal (Scarborough Shoal) since PCG ships and their Chinese counterparts faced off in the West Philippine Sea rock formation for two weeks in mid-2012. But Commander Armand Balilo, PCG spokesperson and chief of the public affairs office, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Monday, that at least two Coast Guard ships—the search-and-rescue vessel BRP Corregidor (001) and the buoy tender BRP San Juan (AE-391)—were “on standby” at the PCG headquarters in Port Area, Manila and could be sent to the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) rock formation “if ordered by the higher-ups.” Balilo was referring to “Malacañang through the DOTC,” not the Western Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, tasked by the government to oversee security in the West Philippine Sea. The 540-ton Corregidor is 56 meters long, has a cruising speed of  26 knots and a range of more than 1,000 nautical miles. Built by the Australian shipbuilding firm Tenix, the multi-role vessel was commissioned by the PCG in June 2002. In November, it was one of several PCG vessels that ferried relief goods to Eastern Visayas provinces ravaged by Super Typhoon “Yolanda” (Haiyan). The 730-ton San Juan, nearly 57 meters long, was built by Niigata Engineering, a Japanese shipbuilding company. It runs at a slow 12 knots but has a cruising range of over 2,000 nautical miles. The ship was commissioned in February 1998 by the Read More …

Global protest set at UN against China ‘expansionism’

 News
Jun 142013
 
Global protest set at UN against China ‘expansionism’

INQUIRER.net US Bureau 2:01 am | Saturday, June 15th, 2013 NEW YORK–A U.S. group critical of China’s claim on islands off the Philippines will hold a protest rally at the United Nations headquarters here on July 24. The U.S. Pinoys for Good Governance (USP4GG) is denouncing China’s latest “incursion” in Ayungin Reef, located just 105 nautical miles from Palawan. Rep. Walden Bello of the Akbayan partylist announced that his group is joining the July 24 mass action in the Philippines and will encourage its supporters throughout the world to join in global actions to denounce China’s provocative actions in the Ayungin Reef. “China seized the Philippines’ Mischief Reef in 1994, then our Scarborough Shoal last year,” stated Loida Nicolas Lewis, the national chair of USP4GG and former national chair of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA). “This year, China is set to invade and occupy the Ayungin Reef. We refuse to accept China’s expansionist agenda.” Sansha anniversary Lewis explained that July 24 marks the first anniversary of China’s establishment of the Sansha City Prefecture, which Beijing mandated to have jurisdiction over more than two million square kilometers of the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea), including islands and reefs in the Spratlys that are within the 200-mile exclusive economic zone of the Philippines. The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) protested the creation of the Sansha Prefecture, after learning that its jurisdiction covered the Kalayaan Island Group in the Spratlys, which “is an integral part of the Philippine Read More …

ITLOS completes five-man tribunal that will hear PHL case vs. China

 News
Apr 252013
 
ITLOS completes five-man tribunal that will hear PHL case vs. China

The Philippines’ case against China took another step forward after a United Nations arbitration body named the last three judges in the five-man tribunal that will hear Manila’s complaint over what it calls Beijing’s “excessive” claim to the South China Sea. “We are hoping that this case that we filed with the tribunal will proceed as soon as possible,” Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez told a press briefing Thursday. International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) President Shunji Yanai on April 24 transmitted a letter to Philippine Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza, head of the Philippine legal team on the arbitration case, informing Manila of the appointment of Mr. Jean-Pierre Cot (France), Mr. Chris Pinto (Sri Lanka), and Mr. Alfred Soons (The Netherlands.) Yanai earlier appointed Mr. Stanislaw Pawlak (Poland) as the second member of the tribunal who will represent China in the proceedings. The Philippines, on the other hand, nominated Mr. Rudiger Wolfrum (Germany) to the tribunal. Illegal Manila took a bold step when it initiated an arbitration process under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) on January 21 to try to declare as “illegal” China’s nine-dash claim, which covers nearly the entire resource-rich waters, where some parts are called West Philippine Sea by the Philippines. China has resisted the Philippines’ move to let a U.N. body intervene in the disputes, saying the case was legally infirm and carried unacceptable allegations. China, Taiwan, Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia have overlapping claims on the islands, Read More …