Lone Coast Guard vessel hanging tough at Panatag Shoal
China has dispatched a powerful military vessel in the South China
Sea after rejecting a Philippine proposal to submit the Panatag Shoal
dispute, now on its 10th day, to international arbitration, Chinese
media reported Thursday.
The English-language China Daily based in Beijing said China’s most
advanced fishing patrol vessel, the Yuzheng 310, had been sent to
protect Chinese fishermen in the region, which Manila calls the West
Philippine Sea.
The newspaper, regarded as a guide to official Chinese policy, said
that Beijing’s latest moves underscored its “determination to protect
its maritime interests in response to Manila’s refusal to withdraw ships
from Chinese waters.”
Yuzheng 310, described as the fastest fishery administration vessel,
left Guangzhou on the Pearl River just outside Hong Kong Wednesday
morning for an undisclosed place in the South China Sea, it said.
10 fishing boats
The newspaper said that earlier on Sunday, Yuzheng 44061 left
Zhanjiang port in Guangdong province to patrol waters around the
Spratlys (which Beijing calls the Nansha Islands), which are being
claimed in whole or in part by the Philippines and China and four other
countries.
The official Xinhua News Agency said 10 boats were still fishing in
the general area of Panatag, according to a Voice of America report.
“Beijing’s decision to send more patrol ships is a necessary and
justified step to show strength,” China Daily said, quoting analysts.
“The move also sends the message to Manila that Beijing does not make
concessions after China has shown patience and sincerity to avert the
situation from deteriorating,” the daily quoted an analyst at the China
Foundation for International and Strategic Studies.
PCG ship stays put
The Armed Forces of the Philippines on Thursday announced that the
government-commissioned archaeological vessel MY Sarangani and a fishing
boat had left Panatag, which the Chinese calls Huangyan Island and
which is internationally known as Scarborough Shoal.
Only a Philippine Coast Guard search and rescue vessel, BRP Edsa,
remains in the area about 220 kilometers west of Zambales and well
within the 370 km exclusive economic zone of the Philippines, according
to Lieutenant General Anthony Alcantara, AFP Northern Luzon commander.
Alcantara said the BRP Edsa had reported sighting three vessels at
Panatag but could not determine if they were Chinese. He said the Coast
Guard could not even check the flags of the vessels.
“They are not Filipino vessels,” Alcantara said in a phone interview
with reporters in Manila. He said the Coast Guard had also spotted two
outrigger boats in the lagoon in the middle of a cluster of reefs and
islands. He said he had no information on when the fishing boats arrived
there.
The sightings of the foreign fishing vessels on Wednesday coincided
with the departure of the Sarangani and the Filipino fishing boat.
Alcantara said the two Filipino vessels left because their work was
done and not because of intimidation. “As far as I know there was no
threat to them. They were protected by our Coast Guard,” he said.
He said the BRP Edsa would “continue its mission, to take care of our
interest in Scarborough Shoal and then to protect our fishermen,
Filipino nationals if need be.”
Arbitration nixed
The standoff at Panatag started on April 10, two days after a
Philippine Navy plane spotted eight Chinese fishing boats in the area.
The Navy flagship, BRP Gregorio del Pilar, was dispatched to the scene.
Navy officers boarded one vessel and found illegally poached marine life
but two Chinese surveillance ships intervened. Beijing has since
maintained civilian surveillance vessels in the area.
The Coast Guard later relieved the Gregorio del Pilar to enforce
maritime laws, according to military and defense officials, while a
diplomatic solution was being pursued.
On April 14, a Chinese vessel ordered the Sarangani to withdraw and
on April 16 a Chinese aircraft buzzed a fishing boat in Panatag in the
second such incident in four days, prompting the Department of Foreign
Affairs to file a diplomatic protest.
Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario, who is in New York on a
previously arranged UN-connected mission, has proposed taking the
Panatag issue to the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea, but
Beijing has rejected this, insisting on bilateral discussions.
Zhang Hua, spokesperson of the Chinese embassy in Manila, on Thursday
urged the Philippines to settle the dispute “through friendly
consultations so as not to complicate or aggravate the incident.”
Philippine officials have vowed to remain at Panatag, claiming the area as part of the country.
A limit to bullying
House Assistant Majority Leader Sherwin Tugna on Thursday urged the
Aquino administration to lodge an immediate complaint in the tribunal
based in Hamburg, Germany, without waiting for Beijing.
“China’s thumbing down of our proposal should not mean its end. We
have the right to pursue it in the proper legal forum,” he said.
Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III and Senator Francis Escudero
on Thursday supported Malacañang’s decision to ignore Chinese demands
to withdraw from Panatag.
“There’s a limit in allowing ourselves to be bullied. It’s called self-respect,” said Sotto.
“It’s not for them to make demands. The Philippines is correct in
simply ignoring it instead of saber-rattling and fanning the flames of
conflict any further,” said Escudero.
In a statement, the leftist Bagong Alyansang Makabayan assailed
Chinese incursions. “As a matter of principle, the Filipino people must
assert Philippine sovereignty against any move to undermine it,” said
the group’s secretary general, Renato Reyes Jr.
‘They don’t fish anymore’
Mayor Desiree Edora of Masinloc, Zambales province, said fishermen
had been avoiding Panatag, which Spanish colonizers called Bajo de
Masinloc, and which she said was part of her municipality.
“It is mostly our fishermen who go there to fish,” she said in a
radio interview Thursday. “They have not been there for quite some time
because they are afraid that a confrontation might erupt. They don’t go
there anymore,” Edora said.
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Philippine Daily Inquirer | April 20, 2012 | Article Link
