MANILA - (UPDATE: 3:41 PM) - The Philippines is informally but
publicly reeling in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
into the ongoing standoff with China at the Scarborough (Panatag) Shoal,
unbroken two weeks after it began by China’s refusal to recognize
UN-set exclusive economic zones.
Just hours after noting three overflights over Panatag by
unidentified aircraft, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario
declared on Thursday that the presence of China in the shoal is a
violation of the ASEAN-China Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in
the South China Sea (DOC).
“I think that the Chinese are now in violation of the DOC
when they are preventing us from enforcing our laws within our Exclusive
Economic Zone,” he said at a press briefing.
“ASEAN should be paying attention to that (statement),” he
added, but stopped short of saying what the ASEAN chairman should do.
“China is a dialogue partner, they [ASEAN] can issue a
statement. ASEAN has succeeded in the past in bringing people together,
(but) I cannot tell the chairman of ASEAN what to do. It’s up to him
what to do,” he said.
The DOC is a non-binding agreement between the 10 ASEAN
member-countries and China affirming all the parties’ intention to
maintain peace, stability, economic growth, and prosperity in the
region. All parties signed the declaration in 2002, affirming their
commitments to the Charter of the United Nations, the 1982 UN Convention
on the Law of the Sea, and other similar international laws.
While no country has formally responded to his call to the
international community to support the Philippines in this issue, the
secretary said that “many” ASEAN countries have reached out to him and
told him that they are “following the issue very closely and sympathize
with what is happening.”
On his and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin scheduled 2 +
2 Dialogue with their United States counterparts next week, he said the
Philippines is not necessarily asking the US for help in this case.
Del Rosario said he seeks to “maximize benefits from the
Mutual Defense Treaty not for any specific circumstance, but the idea of
achieving a minimum credible defense posture is what we should try to
do because it is what we have neglected to do over the years. It is time
for us to do it.”
Asked if China will protest this, he said the development
of the Philippines’ minimum credible defense posture has been discussed
with the US last year, and that the strengthening of the military has
been part of President Aquino’s agenda since Day 1.
He said all he asks is for the US and other countries “to
make a judgment of the implications [of the Chinese actions in
Scarborough Shoal] on their own country.
Overflights by unidentified aircraft, China trying to establish rules
Del Rosario added he has been informed that two
unidentified aircraft flew over the area around midnight last night, and
another aircraft, again at 1:25 a.m.
But he said “there is no harassment and the situation is normal” in the area.
Del Rosario said that together with Chinese incursion into
the Reed Bank last year, this recent incident at the Scarborough Shoal
makes it appear that “China is trying to establish rules” in the region,
as both the Reed Bank and the Scarborough Shoal are clearly part of the
Philippines.
He said that China appears to be trying to establish its
sovereignty and sovereign rights over all of the South China China,
which are “baseless.”
“Clearly, they have no basis for doing this…We have invited them to UNCLOS and they refused,” he said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| April 26, 2012 | Article Link
No comments:
Post a Comment