PUSHING THE SHOAL TO THE BRINK / PH SHIPS REDEPLOY BACK TO
PANATAG
[PHOTO-
RAISING THE FLAG A member of China's ocean expedition team
raises the Chinese flag while another holds a survey rod on Scarborough Shoal,
which China refers to as Huangyan Island. The Philippines calls the shoal some
370 kilometers west of Zambales Panatag. Chinese Embassy
website]
MANILA, JUNE 29, 2012 (INQUIRER)
By Rodel Rodis - Occupying the full top of the front page of the June
19 Philippine Daily Inquirer issue was a color photo of a Chinese soldier
raising the five star red flag of China on top of the Scarborough Shoal while
another soldier holds a surveying rod. The news article that accompanied the
photo ("China ships stay in Panatag Shoal") reported that "Beijing had not
expressed any intention of withdrawing its service ships from Scarborough
Shoal."
This was China's rebuff to the announcement of Pres. Benigno S. Aquino III
the day before that he had ordered the two Philippine Navy vessels stationed in
the Shoal — in a standoff with Chinese paramilitary vessels since April 10 — to
return to port "consistent with our agreement with the Chinese government on the
withdrawal of all vessels from the shoal's lagoon to defuse tensions" in the
area."
It appears that after the Philippine ships left the Shoal, China's ships
remained and even occupied the Shoal as the Inquirer front page photo appeared
to confirm. Once again, the Philippines had been snookered by China as
previously occurred in 1994 when Philippine Navy ships left the Panganiban Reef
— otherwise known as Mischief Reef — because of a typhoon, only to return to
find China's Navy occupying the reef — located only 87 miles from Palawan and
almost 600 miles from China. China has since constructed a concrete fortress on
Mischief Reef.
The stark front page photo of Chinese soldiers waving China's flag on the
Shoal prompted an emergency national telephone conference call on Monday June 18
by members of the US Pinoys for Good Governance (USP4GG) to discuss the
implications of this new escalation of the conflict. What the group – which
sponsored the May 11 global protests against China's intrusion in the
Scarborough Shoal – feared had apparently materialized – China had occupied the
Shoal.
While members were deliberating the course of action to take in light of this
grave development, frantic calls were made to Philippine Department of Foreign
Affairs (DFA) officials to verify whether China had actually seized control of
the Shoal. But no verification was obtained before the conference call meeting
ended so another conference call was set for the next night to confirm Chinese
occupation of the Shoal.
The next day, Philippine Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin warned that if
China did not withdraw its ships from the Shoal, then he would order the return
to the Shoal of Philippine Navy ships.
This raised the spectre of the 1988 incident when Vietnam Navy sailors sought
to restore the flag of Vietnam on Johnson Reef in the Paracel Islands off
Vietnam. When the Chinese flag was removed, the Chinese Navy fired on the
unarmed Vietnamese sailors on the shoal and mowed down all 77 of them. Video
footage of the massacre was filmed by the Chinese Navy and aired in China to
show the resolve of the mighty Chinese People's Liberation Navy.
Could this bloody Vietnam scenario be repeated in the Scarborough Shoal?
Not according to Max Boot. In his June 24, 2012 article which appeared in the
Wall Street Journal ("China Starts to Claim the Seas"), Boot asserts that "in
fact China is the classic bully with a glass jaw."
Boot cites the example of the tiny Pacific Island of Palau with a population
of just 20,000. "In late March, at virtually the same time that the Scarborough
Shoal standoff was beginning," Boot writes, "a Chinese fishing vessel illegally
entered Palau's waters. When the poachers ignored repeated demands that they
leave an area designated as a shark sanctuary, police from Palau's Fish and
Wildlife Division opened fire, trying to sink the offending vessel."
"The result: one fisherman dead and 25 captured. A couple of weeks later,
under the terms of a deal with China, the poachers were fined $1,000 each and
flown back home. The Chinese must have been furious, but their diplomat on the
scene had nothing to say except "it is a good outcome."
As speculation mounted about whether China would react as it did in Vietnam
in 1988 or as it did in Palau in April of 2012, news came from DFA officials
that the photo used on the front page of the Inquirer was taken 10 years ago and
was posted on the China Embassy website. China has not physically occupied the
Shoal and planted its flag there, at least not yet.
On June 22, members of the US Pinoys for Good Governance joined members of
the US Vietnamese community in mounting a demonstration in front of the United
Nations building in New York to protest China's "creeping invasion" of their
countries. Leaders of the two communities announced that they were jointly
launching a nationwide boycott of China-made products.
According to Eric Lachica of USP4GG, "if even one million of us, out of the
four million Filipinos in the US, stop buying Chinese products or goods, we will
create a huge financial penalty on China."
While an economic boycott of China primarily directed at Walmart stores was
being launched in the US, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported on June 25 that
"a Chinese vessel last week rammed a Philippine fishing boat north of the
disputed Scarborough Shoal in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), killing
a Filipino fisherman and leaving four others missing."
The article reported that the ramming of the Philippine boat causing the
death of 32-year old Bolinao fisherman Christopher Carbonel "may have been the
first casualty in the dispute between China and the Philippines over Scarborough
Shoal." Two days earlier, the state-owned China News Agency (CNA) reported on
Saturday that a Chinese official had ordered navy ships to target "Filipino
vessels that hang around" Scarborough Shoal "and don't leave."
The Inquirer further reported: "The order of Rear Adm. Yin Zhuo, director of
the People's Liberation Army Navy's (PLAN) Information Expert Committee, came as
an answer to President Benigno Aquino's statement on Wednesday that he would
order Philippine vessels back to the shoal if air surveillance found China still
had vessels there."
The CNA reported Admiral Yin as saying Chinese naval troops should board and
search Philippine government ships and private fishing vessels. In doing so, Yin
said, Chinese troops "must try to maintain restraint, not force, not hurt
people" when going after Philippine ships found in waters near Scarborough
Shoal. But he affirmed to Communist Party People's Daily that China's Navy would
not hesitate to use deadly force against its enemies.
The following day, the Philippine Coast Guard announced that a Hong
Kong-registered commercial ship, the Peach Mountain, was most likely the vessel
that rammed a Philippine fishing boat in the West Philippine Sea on June 20,
killing a Filipino fisherman and leaving four others missing.
But whether it was an official government ship or a commercial vessel, the
question remains: was the ramming of the Philippine fishing boat an accident?
Not according to Ted Laguatan. "The collision was not accidental," he wrote..
"It is a big wide ocean out there and for small boats, it's practically
impossible to have collisions. Also, if it was accidental, the Chinese would
have attempted to save the Filipino fisherman. This was intentional to provoke
the Philippines and see what kind of capability and resolve the Philippines has
in holding on to its territories and see also how America will react."
"Malacanang and DFA will naturally say it was accidental because of the
implications involved if they tell the people it's intentional. It means a
direct confrontation with China which of course will blatantly just confirm our
military weakness and incapability to defend," Ted wrote.
At this point, China is not yet ready to give Admiral Yin the order he craves
to "use deadly force" against the Philippines. There is too much uncertainty
about what the US response will be to such an attack. China is likely to
announce that it is pulling its paramilitary vessels away from the lagoon while
still remaining in the vicinity of the Shoal to protect the fishing vessels
there. It will also do without openly admitting that it is part of the agreement
negotiated with the Philippines that Sec. Del Rosario had previously announced.
In its May 28, 2012 editorial, the Nation magazine sounded this ominous
warning: "If the current tension continues in South China Sea, especially
between the Philippines and China, it could lead to an all-out war. This is not
an alarmist's warning but a real concern. With poisonous rhetoric and growing
tension, there is a possibility that conflicting parties would cross the line.
This could be a result of miscalculation."
The temperatures in the Shoal are rising and a serious miscalculation may
easily push it to a boiling point.
FROM MANILA STANDARD
Govt ships set to sail back to Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal
Posted June 28th, 2012 by Joyce Pangco Panares & filed under Main
Stories.
THE government will redeploy its vessels to the Panatag (Scarborough)
Shoal amid reports that 28 Chinese vessels had returned to the area,
presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said Wednesday.
"The President's position still stands," Lacierda said.
He was referring to President Benigno Aquino III's earlier statement that two
vessels of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and the Coast Guard
would be redeployed to Panatag if foreign vessels remained in the area.
Based on the latest aerial surveillance by the Navy, 23 out of the 28 Chinese
vessels were right inside the lagoon. The remaining vessels—three Chinese
maritime surveillance vessels and two fishery and law enforcement command
ships—were outside.
"[The redeployment will be] based on considerations. For instance, the
weather will be a consideration. There will be parameters that will be
considered," Lacierda said.
Malacanang on Wednesday also tried to diffuse another potential conflict by
downplaying an exclusive Manila Standard story about a kindergarten school built
in Pagasa, one of seven islands in Kalayaan off Palawan that is also being
contested by at least seven governments including China.
The Chinese government immediately reacted to the story, calling the
establishment of the school as an "illegal activity."
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said on Tuesday that China
"opposes any illegal activity that may infringe on China's sovereignty."
He said Manila "should refrain from making any measures that will complicate
and exacerbate the current situation and affect peace and stability in the South
China Sea."
The Chinese official also insisted that China had "indisputable sovereignty"
over the Spratly chain of islands and its surrounding waters.
In a report by ABS-CBN reporter Willard Cheng, Lacierda said China should not
take issue with the establishment of the school in Pag-asa since the
municipality where the school was located had long been established in the area.
"The municipality has been there," Lacierda said.
"It has never been questioned. It has been under the province of Palawan
since the time of Marcos, I think. So that should never be an issue."
Meanwhile, a Xinhua news agency report indicated that China had no intention
of pulling out of the contested areas in the South China Sea.
The report said the Chinese government on Tuesday sent four China Marine
Surveillance ships from the coastal city of Sanya to the South China Sea to
conduct regular patrols, and supposedly to highlight China's "sovereignty and
jurisdiction" over the region.
China's standoff with the Philippines, which started on April 10 after
Chinese maritime surveillance ships prevented the Philippine Navy from arresting
Chinese fishermen who had engaged in illegal fishing and harvesting of
endangered marine species in the area, threatened to escalate when an
unidentified vessel rammed a fishing boat off Bolinao earlier this week, killing
a fisherman causing four others to disappear.
An initial report saying it was a Chinese vessel that rammed the boat drew a
sharp reaction from the Chinese Embassy, which denied any knowledge of the
incident.
On Tuesday, the government said the ship was registered in Hong Kong,
although it later denied that it was the M/V Peach Mountain, which was one of
several Hong Kong-registered ships that was passing the area at the time.
The Navy is continuing its search for the missing fishermen. With Joel Zurbano
(Published in the Manila Standard Today newspaper on
/2012/June/28)
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
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rights reserved
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