By means of Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio, Reporter
THE PHILIPPINES will continue to send coast guard ships and reinforcements to Sabina Shoal in the South China Sea, where China is reportedly engaged in small-scale land reclamation, a top security measureficial said Monday.
“We can send a ship, and we can send Air Force planes,” Jonathan E. Malaya, deputy director general and spokesperson for the National Security Council (NSC), told reporters. Business world in an interview in Filipino.
‘It is actually the coast guard that deals with the maritime sector [patrols]” he added, noting that military resources would only be used to provide support.
Mr. Malaya said the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) will always be on the sidelines, “the same way the Chinese Coast Guard is accompanied from afar by the People’s Liberation Army Navy.”
“We are using all our surveillance capabilities,” he added.
BRP Teresa Magbanua left Sabina Shoal, which Manila was using as a base for supply missions to Second Thomas Shoal, on September 14 as it had completed its mission, the Philippine National Maritime Council said last week.
The Chinese Coast Guard confiarranged the ship’s departure after it had been hanging there since April in what China deemed an “illegal action”, according to state news agency Xinhua.
China took action against the Philippine ship 9701 in accordance with the law, while repeated Philippine attempts to organize the ship’s supply had failed, Xinhua quoted Chinese coast guard spokesman Liu Dejun as saying.
The Southeast Asian country’s continued presence on the site, aiming to monitor what it suspects is China’s small-scale land reclamation activities, has angered Beijing and made the shoal their latest flashpoint in the disputed waters.
Mr. Malaya, who attended a House of Representatives budget hearing for the NSC, said the Philippines had sent another ship to Sabina Shoal as a replacement BRP Teresa Magbanuathe largest vessel of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), “because it is part of our exclusive economic zone and it is our right to monitor what happens there.”
Mr Malaya said the new ship was sent there to monitor Chinese reclamation activities on the disputed shoal.
He said the PCG now has the capacity for long-term deployment, but as of now Manila would prefer not to reveal its plans.
“We no longer want to reveal how long that ship will be there. The Philippine government has been criticized for being vocal compared to China, which prefers to remain silent,” Mr Malaya said. “So we don’t want to telegraph our blows to China either.”
The Philippine Foreign Ministry said this month that it had expressed its displeasure with Beijing over the Aug. 31 clash in which BRP Teresa Magbanua was hit three times by a Chinese ship.
The Chinese Coast Guard ship caused significant damage to the Philippine ship and endangered the lives of its personnel, a Philippine task force said.
The Chinese side made a similar claim, with Mr Liu saying the smaller PCG ship had “intentionally” collided with their ship.
Sabina was a staging area for Philippine supply missions to Second Thomas Shoal, where Manila grounded a World War II ship in 1999 to serve as an outpost for a handful of Filipino soldiers.
Manila and Beijing reached a resupply deal in July after a June 17 standoff in which Chinese forces using bladed weapons threatened Philippine forces to deliver supplies to the navy outpost, the Philippine military said.
China claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, overlapping with the maritime zones of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
In 2016, a United Nations-backed tribunal in The Hague annulled China’s extensive claims of illegality. Beijing has ignored the ruling.
Sabina Shoal is about 140 kilometers (km) away from the Philippine island of Palawan and about 1,200 km from Hainan Island, the nearest major Chinese landmass.