PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said Tuesday that the Philippines will continue its supply missions in the South China Sea without the need to deploy its navy, despite a recent incident involving Chinese ships.
“We are not at war, we do not need navy warships,” he told reporters in Bulacan province. “All we do is supply our fishermen and protect our territorial rights.”
Over the weekend, Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tristan Tarriela told a forum that deploying a warship could be a “policy option” for the Marcos administration to deter Chinese harassment of fishermen, and that Beijing could send supply missions to a disputed shoal in the waterway would block.
“We will never be part of an escalation in the West Philippine Sea,” Marcos said, referring to parts of the waterway within the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). “It will be provocative and seen as an escalation; we don’t do that.”
He added that the government would continue to support Filipino fishermen.
On December 4, Chinese Coast Guard ships fired a water cannon and struck aside a Manila Fishery Bureau boat carrying supplies to Filipino fishermen operating near Scarborough Shoal, a key fishing area, according to Philippine officials.
Philippine Coast Guard ships also faced “blockades, shadows and dangerous maneuvers” from a Chinese naval vessel.
The Philippines will not deploy its own navy warships to the area to avoid provocation and escalation, Marcos said.
The Philippines filed a diplomatic protest against China, which claims almost the entire South China Sea. Under Marcos’ leadership, the Philippines has filed 193 diplomatic protests against China’s actions in the South China Sea, with 60 filed this year, Foreign Affairs spokesman Ma said. Teresita C. Daza told reporters in a WhatsApp message last week.
The Chinese embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment. China’s coast guard said last week that Philippine ships “dangerously approached” Beijing’s territorial waters around the Scarborough Shoal.
Meanwhile, Tokyo, Washington and Manila reaffirmed their opposition to “any unilateral attempt to change the status quo by force” in the South China Sea, the Japanese Embassy in Manila said in a statement, citing senior diplomats, coast guard and military officials . during a maritime dialogue in Tokyo.
The Philippines held maritime exercises with the US and Japan within its exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea, the military said on Friday, two days after a maritime confrontation with Beijing over Scarborough Shoal.
The exercises brought together a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon aircraft and a Philippine Navy ship BRP Andrés Bonifacio and a small C-90 aircraft, and the Japanese Murasame-class destroyer JS Samidareare the Philippines’ latest round of exercises with allies this year in the face of an increasingly assertive China.
The exercises were conducted “in a manner consistent with international law, and with due regard for the safety of navigation and the rights and interests of other states,” the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the US Indo-Pacific Command said in separate statements documents. statements.
On December 4, the Philippines accused Chinese coast guard ships of firing water cannons and sweeping aside one of their boats, while expressing alarm over the presence on the shoal of a Chinese Navy ship that they said was targeting coast guard ships blocked and overshadowed. which it described as a “steep escalation and provocation.”
China, which claims almost the entire South China Sea, including Scarborough Shoal, claims its actions are lawful.
Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, the Philippines and Vietnam all claim parts of the sea. Tensions have increased over concerns that China’s extensive claims are encroaching on their exclusive economic zones.
EEZs extend up to 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from a country’s coast and give the country sovereign rights to explore and exploit the natural resources in the water and on the ocean floor.
China has rejected a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague that its claims have no basis in international law.
Sovereignty over Scarborough Shoal was never established, but the tribunal ruled that the Chinese blockade there was contrary to international law and that the area is a traditional fishing ground used by fishermen of many nationalities. — John Victor D. Ordoñez of Reuters