COURT TO MEDIATE SHOAL RIFT
[PHOTO
- On 2 March 2011, two Chinese patrol boats confronted a Philippine oil
exploration vessel, MV Veritas Voyager, and ordered it to cease activities in
the Reed Bank area, which they said was under Chinese
jurisdiction.]
MANILA, APRIL 18, 2012 (TRIBUNE)
By Michaela P. del Callar - China yesterday ignored a Philippine
government proposal to bring a dangerous maritime standoff over a disputed shoal
to the United Nations (UN) for resolution and instead ordered a Philippine Coast
Guard ship and a research vessel to leave the area, further prolonging the
dangerous impasse.
Last Monday, the government proposed to bring the disputes to the
UN-affiliated International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) to determine
which among the two nations can actually claim ownership to the Scarborough
Shoal northwest of the Philippines near the South China Sea.
But on Tuesday, Chinese officials ignored the offer and instead demanded the
Philippine side "to withdraw all of their vessels" from the area and "restore
peace and stability there."
The DFA's decision to bring the stand off at the Scarborough Shoals before
the ITLOS had the support of Malacañang.
"It is part of our country's solution to the stand off," deputy presidential
spokesman Abigal Valte said.
Valte likewise noted that with the stand off already with the United Nations
ITLOS, "it is in the best interest of all concerned to settle the issue through
diplomatic means."
The Philippine proposal to bring the disputes to the ITLOS was the latest
attempt by Manila to end the eight-day-old impasse, which has gone nowhere as
both sides refused to back down from their hardline positions.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said the tribunal can serve as
the appropriate forum to peacefully bring the dispute to an end.
"In pursuing a peaceful settlement of the Scarborough Shoal issue, we fully
intend to humbly invite our Chinese friends to join us in the International
Tribunal on the Law of the Sea," Del Rosario said in a statement.
The ill-equipped Philippine military is no match to China's, but Del Rosario
believes that justice can be dispensed equally through international law whether
the protagonists are small nations or world powers.
"The whole world knows that China has myriad more ships and aircraft than the
Philippines," he said, but "at day's end, we hope to demonstrate that
international law would be the great equalizer."
ITLOS is one of the four means for the settlement of disputes through
interpretation and application of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, a
1982 accord ratified by more than 160 countries including China and the
Philippines that defines access and usage of oceans and sea bodies by countries
within their exclusive economic zones (EEZ). Other avenues are through the
International Court of Justice (ICJ), Arbitration or Special Arbitration.
"The purpose of the exercise will be to ascertain which of us has sovereign
rights over the waters surrounding Scarborough Shoal where Chinese ships are
currently engaging in illegal activities within the Philippine Exclusive
Economic Zone (EEZ)," Del Rosario said.
Amid protests from China, Manila said it has sovereign rights over the shoal,
which it calls Panatag, on the basis that it is 124 nautical miles west of the
Philippine province of Zambales and well within its 200-nautical mile EEZ as
outlined under UNCLOS. The nearest Chinese coast to the disputed shoal is Hainan
province, which is about 471 nautical miles from Scarborough.
Manila said this rule supports its argument that China's assertion over the
entire South China Sea is baseless as it lies too far from Philippine-claimed
areas.
This is the second time that the Philippines invited China to seek the legal
opinion of the ITLOS.
When tensions over the resource-rich South China Sea resurfaced last year,
Manila invited Beijing to prove its far-reaching claims before the tribunal, but
it declined.
Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said China's refusal this time to go
to ITLOS would indicate that it is not prepared to validate its claims.
"If they are prepared then they should go with us to ITLOS," Hernandez told a
press briefing.
[PHOTO- The Chinese constructed a Station Designed for Oil Extraction
in disputed area.]
China belittled the Philippines' assertions, saying its claim over the shoal,
which it refers to as Huangyan Island, and using the EEZ as the basis of its
arguments are "groundless."
"UNCLoS allows coastal states to claim a 200-nautical-mile EEZ, but coastal
states have no rights to infringe on the inherent territory and sovereignty of
other countries," Chinese Embassy spokesman Zhang Hua said in a statement.
"The Philippines asserts that Huangyan Island is closer to its territory, but
in fact geographical proximity has long been dismissed by the international law
and practice as the principle of the solution of territory ownership," Zhang
said.
China virtually claims the entire South China Sea, which is home to a cluster
of islands, shoals, reefs and coral outcrops that straddle one of the world's
busiest shipping lanes. It teems with rich fishing grounds and is believed to
have huge oil and gas reserves.
Overlapping claims by China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and
Taiwan, have sparked occasional violence and now regarded as a potential
regional flashpoint for armed conflict.
"Until 1997, the Philippine side has never disputed China's jurisdiction of
and development on Huangyan Island," Zhang said, claiming the Philippines
indicated on a number of occasions that the shoal was beyond its territory.
The standoff erupted when the Philippine Navy spotted eight Chinese fishing
boats off the shoal on April 8.
A Philippine warship was about to arrest the Chinese fishermen in possession
of large amounts of illegally collected corals, giant clams and live sharks, but
was prevented by two Chinese maritime surveillance ships on April 10.
The eight fishing boats, along with their illegal catch, slipped away Friday,
leaving Manila and Beijing deadlocked on which among the two nation's remaining
vessels in the area should first withdraw.
China is keeping two white vessels there against a lone Philippine coast
guard ship. A Philippine-registered research vessel carrying nine French
nationals and Filipino scientists, said to have been constantly harassed by the
Chinese vessels and aircrafts, remained inside the shoal's lagoon.
The Philippines and China said they would continue negotiations and have
resolved to find an end to the stalemate peacefully.
The government also filed a new protest against China in their increasingly
bitter dispute over the South China Sea, this time for allegedly harassing an
archaeological research boat.
The protest was over an incident at Scarborough Shoal, the same area of the
sea where Chinese vessels blocked a Philippine warship from arresting the crew
of eight Chinese fishing boats this month, the government said.
"We lodged the protest yesterday afternoon" with the Chinese ambassador in
Manila, said Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez.
"The harassment of the vessel is part of the continued intrusion and illegal
activities being done by China in our area," he said.
He said the Philippine-registered M/Y Saranggani was "harassed by Chinese
ships and aircraft" while on Scarborough, which is about 230 kilometers (140
miles) from the western coast of the Philippines' main island of Luzon.
Hernandez said Saranggani was manned by scientists, including nine French
nationals.
No other details were available about their research and when they
specifically arrived in the area, but Hernandez said the research boat was still
there.
"It is doing research, which is well within our rights," Hernandez said.
A spokeswoman for the French embassy in Manila said it would not give any
details or comment about the case.
China claims all of the South China Sea as its own on historical
grounds, even waters approaching the coasts of the Philippines and other
Southeast Asian countries.
The rival claims have been a source of regional tensions for decades,
although the Philippines and Vietnam have accused China over the past year of
becoming increasingly aggressive in asserting its position.
On April 8 the Philippines found the eight Chinese fishing boats at
Scarborough Shoal, and deployed its warship to arrest the crew.
China quickly deployed three civilian maritime vessels that took turns in
blocking the warship.
In a bid to calm the situation, the Philippines pulled back its warship and
replaced it with a coast guard vessel late last week, and the fishing vessels
sailed away over the weekend.
Hernandez said a lone Philippine coast guard boat now remained in the area on
Tuesday, facing off with two Chinese civilian ships.
"We may not be going to war, but we must defend our rights and sovereignty,"
Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño, meanwhile, said on the statement of Mr. Aquino
that the Chinese poachers who illegally caught endangered species of our marine
resources in Panatag (Scarborough) shoal were freed and their illegal catch not
confiscated because we're not going to war against China and the President wants
to ease the tension between the two countries.
"What the Chinese did was deplorable and an infringement on our sovereignty,
we have every right to detain them and confiscate their catch. They were
poaching in our territorial waters, for crying out loud! This should be no
different from the Vietnamese who were recently apprehended catching marine
turtles in our waters. Now they are under Philippine custody and their catch
confiscated," Casiño said.
"With President Aquino's statement the Chinese will be more brazen in
entering our territory and poaching on our waters," Casiño averred.
"This will make us look like a push over in the international community and
would engender a culture of impunity on the Chinese and other claimants in the
Spratly's to do as they please because we do not want any tension," he added.
Tension remains high in the disputed Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal off the
waters of Zambales province as a Chinese aircraft again buzzed over a Filipino
fishing vessel on Monday amid the more than a week standoff in the area. Mario J. Mallari, Rocky G. Nazareno and Charlie V. Manalo
Chief News Editor: Sol
Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE
NEWS ONLINE
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PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS
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