RP: Stop inaccurate reports China: Don’t ‘internationalize’

GOV’T ISSUES NOTE VERBALE TO CHINESE ENVOY

RP: Stop inaccurate reports China: Don’t ‘internationalize’

By Michaela P. del Callar

The Philippines and China traded fresh accusations yesterday over a territorial dispute in the South China Sea with the government complaining to China yesterday that its embassy in Manila have been relaying inaccurate information about the negotiations to resolve the dangerous naval standoff at the Scarborough shoal while the Chinese government warned against efforts to “internationalize” the issue.

At the same time, the Department of Foreign Affairs also reported that the number of Chinese and Philippine vessels facing off at the shoal has increased with the rival countries having two government ships each there now along with an increasing number of Chinese and Filipino fishermen.

China warned the Philippines not to “internationalize” the dispute as US and Philippine forces staged war games in the area.

“Internationalizing this issue will only complicate and magnify the situation,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin told reporters in response to a question about the current situation in the dispute.

The presence of the two sides at Scarborough, both claimed by Manila and Beijing, has fluctuated in more than two weeks since the standoff began while the two nations struggle to find a solution to the tense impasse.

This latest confrontation in an area in the South China Sea that is close to Philippine shore is the most serious challenge for Manila since 1995, when China forcibly occupied the Manila-claimed Mischief Reef, located 130 nautical miles from Palawan and well within the country’s exclusive economic zone as outlined by international law.

Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said Chinese Ambassador Ma Keqing received from Foreign Affairs Assistant Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro a note verbale, expressing the Philippine government’s displeasure over the seemingly inaccurate reports reaching Beijing on the outcome of negotiations in Manila.

“In the note verbale, the DFA noted with concern the Chinese statement that they have become more assertive because the Philippines allegedly broke an agreement on the pull-out of the fishing boats and ships,” Hernandez said. “The DFA pointed out that there has never been an agreement reached.”

“The DFA is of the view that it was unfortunate that the Chinese response was based on inaccurate appreciation of the fact and dynamics of the negotiations,” he added.

Hernandez said the meeting was conducted in a “congenial atmosphere where both sides agreed to continue to work together to move the process forward.”

At one point, he said Ma admitted to Lazaro during the meeting that “there was indeed misunderstanding and it is unfortunate that this happened.”

To address the impasse and to avoid future misunderstanding, the DFA stressed that the dialogue between the two governments “must be based on complete trust and the confidence” and that details to be conveyed to the capitals “must be accurate rendition of facts.”

“The DFA believes that responsibility for resolving the issue rests not just with one party but with both parties,” it said.

The standoff began when the Philippines spotted Chinese fishing vessels in the shoal 140 nautical miles from Masinloc town in Zambales on April 8.

Two Chinese government vessels prevented a Philippine warship from arresting the fishermen, accused by Manila of poaching and illegal fishing of endangered species.

The fishermen got away with their illegal catch, but China kept its presence with the deployment of big surveillance ships, which, at one point had been increased to four.

To assert its sovereignty in the Scarborough, a ring-shaped coral reef that has several rocks encircling a lagoon, Manila has stationed two vessels – one from the coast guard and a fisheries patrol craft.

Manila calls the shoal Panatag or Bajo de Masinloc while China refers to it as Huangyan Island.

The Philippines challenged China to bring the disputes for resolution to international arbitration, where Manila believes to have a strong case, but Beijing refused, raising speculations that it is not prepared to validate its far-reaching claims in the South China Sea.

Scarborough shoal is located 140 nautical miles from Zambales and 472 nautical miles from China’s nearest land mass of Hainan province.

The Philippines says the rule under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) giving maritime nations the right to exercise sovereignty within its 200 nautical mile EEZ bolsters its claim to the shoal.

China virtually claims the entire South China Sea, a resource-rich and strategically located sealane, on the basis of historical rights.

Competing claims to the sea’s more than 200 islands, rocks, reefs and coral outcrops by China and the Philippines, as well as Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan, have sparked occasional violence and now regarded as a potential regional flashpoint for armed conflict. (Michaela P. del Callar)

“We do not wish to see the Philippines get other countries involved and get them to take sides over the issue,” Liu said as US and Filipino soldiers staged an operation in which they stormed the Philippine island of Palawan in a war exercise not far from the real-life maritime standoff.

For the past two weeks, Chinese patrol vessels have prevented the Philippines from arresting alleged poachers in the disputed waters around the Scarborough Shoal.

A Philippine military official stressed the exercise was not a veiled threat against China, which has protested US moves to boost its military presence in the region.

China claims all of the South China Sea as a historic part of its territory, even waters close to the coasts of the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries.

The Philippines has complained over the past two years that China has become increasingly aggressive in staking its claim to the waters, with tensions spiking over the Scarborough Shoal standoff.

Ignoring Chinese warning that the continuing conduct of the Balikatan joint exercises has fanned the risks of armed confrontation in the West Philippine Sea, more than a hundred combined Filipino and American troops yesterday staged an amphibious raid training off the waters of Palawan.

Navy Lt. Annalea Cazcarro, deputy spokesman of the Balikatan on the Philippine side, said that the boat raid exercises started at around 9 a.m. when 12 rubber boats, six each from the Filipino and US sides, were released from BRP Laguna to stage the boat raid on Oyster Bay in Puerto Princesa City.

Cazcarro said the scenario was port retake and seizure. About 300 meters from the shoreline, the Filipino and US troops swam toward the port and launch the mock assault to retake the island from “terrorists”. The exercise was over after more or less two hours.

“This is the last activity in Palawan…there will be closing (ceremonies) tomorrow,” said Cazcarro.

The Navy officer maintained that the amphibious raid exercise is not in any way connected to the ongoing standoff between the Philippines and China over the disputed Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal in the West Philippine Sea.

“This is a bilateral exercise that we conduct every year, and this has already been planned one year before. So, this has nothing to do with any country,” said Cazcarro.

A commentary by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) newspaper last week warned that the Balikatan joint exercises have fanned the risks of armed confrontation in the disputed West Philippine Sea where a standoff is now ongoing between Philippine and Chinese ships.

The PLA paper stated that anyone with clear eyes saw long ago that behind these drills is reflected a mentality that will lead the South China Sea issue down a fork in the road toward military confrontation and resolution through armed force.

Manila insisted the exercise was not directed at China, but Beijing warned the United States against actions that might upset regional stability — and refused to rule out military action to resolve the high-seas impasse.

Any military action “will be based on the needs of diplomacy”, China’s defence minister, General Liang Guanglie, said on Hong Kong’s Phoenix Television.

But Liang also said he believed China and the the Philippines would be able to peacefully resolve the escalating row over Scarborough Shoal — known in Chinese as Huangyan Island — in the South China Sea.

The minister added: “We hope the things the United States is doing in the Asia-Pacific region will be beneficial to prosperity, stability and development in the Asia-Pacific region.”

China claims all of the South China Sea as a historic part of its territory, even waters close to the coasts of the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries.

Competing claims to the strategically vital and potentially oil-rich waters have long made the area one of Asia’s potential flashpoints for military conflict.

Lieutenant-Colonel Rommel Abrau, operations officer of the Philippine Marines’ amphibious task force, said the war games 575 kilometres (360 miles) south of Scarborough Shoal posed no threat to China.

“Definitely, there is no political color here. This has long been planned and it is not directed against anyone, or any country. This is purely a training exercise meant to improve our joint capabilities,” he said.

The mid-morning exercise began with Filipino Marine scouts swimming into the U-shaped bay and engaging enemy guards in close-quarter combat.

Amid the explosions of red and white smoke grenades, the rest of the troops swept into the beach from the sea using inflatable boats launched from a bigger Filipino Marine vessel anchored off the bay.

Using long firearms and assault rifles armed with blanks, a quick firefight ensued before the invading force overpowered the defenders and rescued several “hostages”.

“It was one of the best simulated trainings I’ve ever had as a Marine,” said US Sergeant Matthew Milanuk, a 25-year-old Nebraska native who has seen action in Iraq.

“I think the Filipino Marines are a capable force and can handle their own if this were a real situation,” he said, but declined to comment on the political implications of the war games.

The beach assault came days after commando teams roped down from US helicopters onto waiting rubber boats to “retake” an offshore oil rig also supposedly taken over by an enemy force.

Philippine firm Forum Energy said Tuesday it intended to pursue natural-gas exploration in the South China Sea amid expectations its Reed Bank project, also claimed by China, contains the Philippines’ largest gas deposit.

The Philippines and United States are bound by a 1951 treaty that calls on both sides to come to each other’s aid in times of external aggression or war.

Lieutenant-Colonel Duane Thiessen, the commander of US Marines in the Pacific based in Okinawa, Japan, said on Sunday that Washington took the treaty very seriously.

The United States has more broadly been shifting military resources to Asia, with a Marines contingent now deployed to Darwin in northern Australia, much to China’s suspicion.

Mario J. Mallari, AFP