CHINA WANTS U.S. OUT OF SPRATLYS DISPUTE / P-NOY: WHAT'S OURS IS OURS!
[PHOTO - Pagasa has an airstrip, a small town hall and about 60 Philippine civilians]
MANILA, AUGUST 4, 2011 (BBC) by Efren Montano - THE People's Republic of China wants to settle peacefully through dialogues the controversy over the Spratly Group of Islands without the intervention of countries which have no claim in the disputed territories like the United States, a congressman who visited China recently said.
Rep. Sherwin Tugna said he believes China does not want to resolve the conflict with force.
"From my understanding, Chinese officials want a peaceful resolution of the disputed islands. But without the participation of countries, I supposed the United States, which has no claim in the controversial Spratlys," he said.
Tugna, along with Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Cavite Rep. Elpidio "Pidi" Barzaga, La Union Rep. Victor Ortega, Bukidnon Rep. Joey Zubiri, Zamboanga del Sur Rep. Victor Yu and Batangas Rep. Tomas Apacible met with Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China.
"He (Wu) emphasized the importance of resolving the controversy through peaceful avenues," said Tugna.
The seven lawmakers were invited by China to a friendly visit with Chinese parliamentarians where the issue of Spratlys was one of the things discussed.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario is expected to discuss the territorial dispute when he visits China next week.
The secretary is set to visit China from July 7 to 9 through the invitation of his counterpart, Yang Jiechi.
"I've been invited to Beijing and we're looking for peaceful means to settle the challenges facing us," Del Rosario said.
President Benigno Aquino is also expeted to visit China in August or September.
Del Rosario said he expected the tensions that have escalated recently over rival claims to parts of the South China Sea would not escalate into armed conflict.
"We're counting on China's rise and growth and progress as being a responsible one," he told reporters.
Tensions in the strategic and resource-rich South China Sea have escalated in recent weeks, with the Philippines and Vietnam voicing alarm at what they say are increasingly aggressive Chinese actions there.
Del Rosario repeated Philippine accusations of Chinese forces opening fire on Filipino fishermen, shadowing an oil exploration vessel employed by a Filipino firm, and putting up structures in areas claimed by the Philippines.
He said he did not know why China had suddenly become more aggressive.
"I can only speculate that there appears to be some finding of significant natural gas deposits in the area," he said.
While he did not expect the tensions to lead to war, Del Rosario said he was counting on the United States to deliver on Secretary Hillary Clinton's pledge last week to help its Asian ally acquire the means to defend its own territory.
FROM YAHOO ASIA NEWS
Coconuts for cigarettes and the human faces behind the Spratlys dispute
By Benjamin Pimentel in San Francisco/Philippine Daily Inquirer | ANN – Sun, Jul 24, 2011
http://ph.news.yahoo.com/
Aquino to China: Filipinos will defend territory AP By JIM GOMEZ - Associated Press | AP – Tue, Jul 26, 2011
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — President Benigno Aquino III warned China in a major national speech Monday that the Philippines was ready to defend its Spratly Islands claims by acquiring more weapons and would elevate the territorial feuds to a U.N. tribunal.
In his State of the Nation Address to Congress, Aquino also announced a new chief anti-graft prosecutor and said his year-old government plans to file its first major corruption case this year against corrupt officials and their accomplices. He did not name the officials but vowed punishment for the guilty.
"We do not wish to increase tensions with anyone, but we must let the world know that we are ready to protect what is ours," Aquino said, drawing loud applause at the packed House of Representatives. The address also was televised live to the nation.
Aquino's tough rhetoric echoed past criticisms of China over the Spratlys, so may have been meant to project him as a strong leader dealing firmly with an issue about which many Filipinos feel emotional, political analyst Ramon Casiple said.
"He was playing to a domestic audience. It's more of asserting to the people that he's a leader," Casiple said, adding that Aquino's reiterated position was unlikely to surprise China.
Aquino noted the efforts to bolster the military's capability, citing the recent purchase of a U.S. Coast Guard cutter and plans to acquire more patrol vessels, helicopters and weapons in deals he guaranteed would be aboveboard.
Aquino did not name China in his speech but clearly referred to it in laying a clear claim to the South China Sea feature called Recto Bank, also known as the Reed Bank, where the Philippines alleges China has intruded.
"There was a time when we couldn't appropriately respond to threats in our own backyard," Aquino said. "Now, our message to the world is clear: What is ours is ours; setting foot on Recto Bank is no different from setting foot on Recto Avenue."
Recto Avenue is a popular street in downtown Manila. The Philippines has said Chinese forces have repeatedly intruded into Manila-claimed areas in the sea since February, including at the Reed Bank. Filipino officials said two Chinese patrol boats threatened a Filipino oil exploration ship into leaving the Reed Bank, which they said was within its regular territorial waters and not part of the nearby Spratlys.
Two military planes were deployed during the March 2 incident, but the Chinese boats have left by the time the aircraft reached the Reed Bank, about 90 miles (150 kilometers) from the Philippine coast.
Chinese officials have said there were no intrusions because those waters belonged to China.
The chain of barren, largely uninhabited islands, reefs and banks in the South China Sea are claimed entirety or partly by China, Taiwan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Brunei. They are believed to be rich in oil and natural gas and straddle a busy international sea lane.
The Spratlys have long been regarded as Asia's next potential flashpoint for armed conflict.
Washington has said the peaceful resolution of the territorial disputes and ensuring the freedom of navigation there were in the U.S. national interest, a position that irked China.
The Philippines has said it intends to bring the Spratlys disputes before the U.N.'s International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea. China opposed the plan and wants to negotiate bilaterally instead.
Aquino said bringing the case before an international arbiter would ensure that "all involved nations approach the dispute with calm and forbearance."
On government corruption, Aquino did not identify the officials his government would charge this year but he has been under intense pressure to have his predecessor, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, prosecuted for alleged plunder.
Arroyo has steadfastly denied any wrongdoing and criticized Aquino for a lackluster performance. Arroyo and her two children, who are now legislators, attended the morning session of Congress but were absent when Aquino delivered his speech.
Arroyo then traveled to her home province of Pampanga, north of Manila, but later returned to the capital and was confined to a hospital for a still unspecified reason, her spokeswoman, Maite Defensor, said.
More than 6,500 mostly left-wing protesters rallied outside Congress as Aquino spoke, demanding higher wages, farmland and Arroyo's prosecution. They were blocked by riot police from getting near Congress.
Associated Press writer Teresa Cerojano contributed to this report.
Q&A: South China Sea dispute
Rival countries have squabbled over territory in the South China Sea for centuries - but a recent upsurge in tension has sparked concern that the area is becoming a flashpoint with global consequences.
What is the argument about?
It is a dispute over territory and sovereignty over ocean areas and the Paracels and the Spratlys - two island chains claimed in whole or in part by a number of countries. Alongside the fully fledged islands, there are dozens of uninhabited rocky outcrops, atolls, sandbanks and reefs.
Who claims what?
China claims by far the largest portion of territory - an area stretching hundreds of miles south and east from its most southerly province of Hainan. Beijing has said its right to the area come from 2,000 years of history where the Paracel and Spratly island chains were regarded as integral parts of the Chinese nation.
In 1947 China issued a map detailing its claims. It showed the two island groups falling entirely within its territory. Those claims are mirrored by Taiwan, because the island considers itself the Republic of China and has the same territorial claims.
Vietnam hotly disputes China's historical account, saying China never claimed sovereignty over the islands until the 1940s. Vietnam says both island chains are entirely within its territory. It says it has actively ruled over both the Paracels and the Spratlys since the 17th Century - and has the documents to prove it.
The other major claimant in the area is the Philippines, which invokes its geographical proximity to the Spratly Islands as the main basis of its claim for part of the grouping.
Malaysia and Brunei also lay claim to territory in the South China Sea that they say falls within their economic exclusion zones, as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982. Brunei does not claim any of the disputed islands, but Malaysia claims a small number of islands in the Spratlys.
Recent Vietnamese naval exercises in the potentially resource rich South China Sea have raised tensions between Hanoi and Beijing.
Why are so many countries so keen?
The Paracels and the Spratlys may have vast reserves of natural resources around them. There has been little detailed exploration of the area, so estimates are largely extrapolated from the mineral wealth of neighbouring areas.
Chinese officials have given the most optimistic estimates of resource wealth in the area. According to figures quoted by the US Energy Information Administration, one Chinese estimate puts possible oil reserves as high as 213 billion barrels - 10 times the proven reserves of the US. But American scientists have estimated the amount of oil at 28 billion barrels.
According to the EIA, the real wealth of the area may well be natural gas reserves. Estimates say the area holds about 900 trillion cubic ft (25 trillion cubic m) - the same as the proven reserves of Qatar.
The area is also one of the region's main shipping lanes, and is home to a fishing ground that supplies the livelihoods of thousands of people.
How much trouble does the dispute cause?
The most serious trouble in recent decades has flared between Vietnam and China. The Chinese seized the Paracels from Vietnam in 1974, killing several Vietnamese troops. In 1988 the two sides clashed in the Spratlys, when Vietnam again came off worse, losing about 70 sailors.
The Philippines has also been involved in a number of minor skirmishes with Chinese, Vietnamese and Malaysian forces.
The most recent upsurge in tension has coincided with more muscular posturing from China. Beijing officials have issued a number of strongly worded statements, including warning their rivals to stop any mineral exploration in the area.
The Philippines has accused China of building up its military presence in the Spratlys. And unverified claims that the Chinese navy deliberately sabotaged two Vietnamese exploration operations has led to large anti-China protests on the streets of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
Vietnam has held live-fire exercises off its coast - an action that was seen as a gross provocation by Beijing.
Is anyone trying to resolve the row?
Over the years, China has tended to favour arrangements negotiated behind closed doors with the individual leaders of other countries. But the other countries have pushed for international mediation.
So in July 2010, when US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton became involved in the debate and called for a binding code of conduct, China was not pleased. The Chinese Foreign Ministry dismissed her suggestion as an attack on China.
Agreements such as the UN's 1982 convention appeared to lay the framework for a solution. But in practice, the convention led to more overlapping claims, and did nothing to deter China and Vietnam in pressing their historical claims.
Both the Philippines and Vietnam have made bilateral agreements with China, putting in place codes of conduct in the area. But the agreements have made little difference.
The regional grouping Asean - whose membership includes all of the main players in the dispute except China and Taiwan - concluded a code of conduct deal with China in 2002.
Under the agreement, the countries agreed to "resolve their territorial and jurisdictional disputes by peaceful means, without resorting to the threat or use of force, through friendly consultations and negotiations".
But recent events suggest that Vietnam and China at least have failed to stick to the spirit of that agreement. And Asean continues to discuss new ideas for resolving the dispute.
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