PH, China in WPS call

Manila, Beijing trade diplomatic protests over latest clash

Manila and Beijing traded diplomatic protests on Monday, with China making “stern representations” during a phone call between deputy foreign ministers of both countries.

This was after a China Coast Guard vessel damaged a Philippine supply ship with a water cannon near Ayungin Shoal last week, leaving three Filipino soldiers injured.

The Philippines summoned a Chinese envoy and filed a démarche or a diplomatic protest in Beijing over “aggressive actions” by the China Coast Guard and other vessels.

The Chinese Embassy in Manila filed its own diplomatic protest over what it claimed as an “illegal trespassing of Philippine resupply vessels” near Ayungin Shoal.

Beijing also claimed the deputy foreign ministers of both countries held a tense phone call yesterday.

“Vice Foreign Minister Chen Xiaodong held a phone call with Philippine deputy foreign secretary (Maria Theresa) Lazaro, and made stern representations on issues including the Philippines’ transportation of supplies to the illegally ‘beached’ military ship on Ren’ai Reef,” China’s foreign ministry said in a statement, using the Chinese name for Ayungin Shoal in the Spratly Islands.

Chen said he told Lazaro that “China-Philippines relations are currently at a crossroads, and the Philippines must act prudently.”

“China once more urges the Philippines to honour its commitments, respect the consensus, stop violating rights and provoking trouble at sea, stop any unilateral action that could complicate the situation, and earnestly return to the correct track of appropriately addressing disagreements through negotiation and consultation,” Chen said.

Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, for his part, challenged Beijing to seek arbitration, which he said was the “best way of solving a legal dispute sustainably.”

“That’s why they don’t like that,” Teodoro told reporters.

The Department of Foreign Affairs on Monday said some 20 countries have already backed the Philippines following the recent incident in Ayungin Shoal.

“The DFA thanks the international community for their continued expressions of support to the Philippines and the defense of the international order based on international law,” DFA spokesperson Daza said.

“To date, some 20 countries/partners have issued statements of support,” she added.

These include France, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, the European Union, Australia, Japan, Canada, the United States, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Italy, South Korea, The Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, and Sweden.

Beijing and Manila have a long history of maritime territorial disputes in the South China Sea and there have been repeated confrontations between their vessels near disputed reefs in recent months.

The latest incident took place Saturday near Ayungin Shoal in the Spratly Islands during a regular Philippine mission to resupply Filipino troops garrisoned on the BRP Sierra Madre, a grounded Navy ship.

The Philippines said the China Coast Guard blocked its supply vessel and damaged it with water cannon, injuring three soldiers.

The China Coast Guard defended its actions, describing them as “lawful regulation, interception and expulsion” of a foreign vessel that “tried to forcefully intrude” into Chinese waters.

Ayungin Shoal is about 200 kilometers (120 miles) from the western Philippine island of Palawan — well within the country’s 200-mile exclusive economic zone — and more than 1,000 kilometers from China’s nearest major landmass, Hainan island.

Manila conveyed its “strong protest against the aggressive actions undertaken by the China Coast Guard and Chinese Maritime Militia against the rotation and resupply mission undertaken by the Philippines in Ayungin Shoal,” the DFA said on Monday.

It said the Philippine embassy in Beijing also lodged a similar protest with the Chinese foreign ministry.

“In these démarches, the Philippines stressed, among others, that China has no right to be in Ayungin Shoal,” the DFA said.

“The Philippines demands that Chinese vessels leave the vicinity of Ayungin Shoal and the Philippine exclusive economic zone immediately.”

It is the same location where there have been recent collisions between vessels belonging to both countries, as well as water cannoning by the China Coast Guard.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, brushing off rival claims from other countries including the Philippines and an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.

The United States, which has a mutual defense pact with Manila, has denounced the attack.

It came days after visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States stood by its “ironclad” commitments to defend longtime ally the Philippines against armed attack in the South China Sea.

Senator Grace Poe, for her part, said the government must hold the Chinese vessel responsible for the injury inflicted on three Filipino troops.

“From shadowing our vessels to collisions and water cannon assaults, incidents in the West Philippine Sea have been escalating,” Poe said.

“This uncivilized action should stop,” the senator added.

On the other hand, Senator Francis Tolentino urged the DFA to establish research and development alliances with maritime countries as a means of mobilizing international support after last Saturday’s water cannon attack.

“To those countries with which the Philippines have no alliance through treaties or our allies in defense, pacts, or treaties, we can have joint exercises for peaceful marine science research and development,” Tolentino said in a statement. — Rey E. Requejo with AFP