By Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio, A reporter
THE PHILIPPINES will continue to send patrol vessels and strengthen the coast in the Sabina Shoal in the South China Sea, where China has been accused of minor repairs, high securityficial said on Monday.
“We can send a ship, and we can send Air Force planes,” National Security Council (NSC) Director General and spokesman Jonathan E. Malaya told. BusinessWorld in a conversation in Filipino.
“He’s actually a Coast Guard officer who does sea duty [patrols],” he added, noting that military equipment will be used only for support.
Mr. Malaya said the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) will always stand by, “in the same way that the Chinese Coast Guard stands by the People’s Liberation Army Navy from afar.”
“We are using all our monitoring capabilities,” he added.
BRP Teresa Magbanua on September 14 left Sabina Shoal, which Manila used as a staging area for the re-shipment of the Second Thomas Shoal, because it had completed its mission, the National Maritime Council of the Philippines said last week.
The Chinese Coast Guard disagreesficanceling the ship’s departure after it had been docked there since April in what China considered an “illegal act,” according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.
China took action against the Philippine vessel 9701 in accordance with the law, while repeated attempts by the Philippines to organize the filling of the vessel failed, Xinhua quoted China Coast Guard spokesman Liu Dejun as saying.
The Southeast Asian nation’s continued presence in the region, aimed at monitoring what it suspects are China’s small-scale restructuring activities, has angered Beijing, turning the rain into its latest foray into rival waters.
Mr. Malaya, who attended the NSC House of Representatives budget hearing, said the Philippines sent another ship to Sabina Shoal to fill the void. BRP Teresa Magbanuathe largest vessel of the Philippine Coast Guard’s (PCG), “because it is part of our exclusive economic zone, and it is our right to monitor what is happening there.”
Mr. Malaya said that a new ship has been sent there to check what China is doing again in this disputed figure.
He said that PCG now has the ability to broadcast for a long time, but from here on, Manila prefers not to broadcast its programs.
“We don’t want to reveal how long that ship will last, the Philippine government has been criticized loudly compared to China, which prefers silence,” said Mr. Malaya. “So we also don’t want to teleport our punches to China.”
The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs this month said it expressed its displeasure with Beijing over the August 31 clash where BRP Teresa Magbanua it was hit three times by a Chinese ship.
A Chinese Coast Guard vessel caused serious damage to a Philippine vessel and put the lives of its crew at risk, the Philippine crew said.
The Chinese side made a similar claim, with Mr Liu saying the small PCG vessel had “deliberately” collided with their vessel.
Sabina has been the site of the Philippine redeployment mission to Second Thomas Shoal, where Manila stationed the World War II-era ship in 1999 to serve as an armada for several Philippine troops.
Manila and Beijing came up with a renegotiation agreement on July 17 after a June 17 standoff in which Chinese forces threatened, using steel weapons, Filipino soldiers delivering supplies to a Navy depot, according to the Philippine military.
China claims sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, passing through the maritime territories of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.
In 2016, a United Nations-backed tribunal in The Hague rejected China’s claims of illegality. Beijing has ignored the decision.
Sabina Shoal is 140 kilometers (km) from the Philippine island of Palawan and about 1,200 kilometers from Hainan Island, which is China’s closest land to the world.
Source link
