PHILIPPINE authorities have monitored an Chinese “increased presence and activity” in the Kalayaan Island Group (KIG) since February, acts that Manila says violate an informal agreement among claimant countries against provocative undertakings in the area.
It is in KIG where, the Philippine military says, Chinese naval boats have fired on Filipino fishermen, harassed scientists surveying the area for the Philippine government, put up buoys and unloaded construction materials for purposes Beijing has yet to say.
Western Mindanao Command chief Lt. Gen. Juancho Sabban says they’ve monitored seven incidents just since February.
It’s almost as if the Chinese are testing and poking to see how the Aquino government will react.
Now we all know.
The Philippines has been vocal lately in protesting what it deems are China’s incursions over the KIG, sending protests and summoning embassy officials to relay concern. The military dispatched a plane to shoo intruding Chinese vessels away from the KIG.
KIG is a portion of the Spratlys chain in the waters that Manila now prefers to call West Philippine Sea instead of South China Sea. The Philippines’ claim is based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a legal framework defining rights and responsibilities of coastal states.
Under UNCLOS, a coastal state, measured from the identified baseline, is allowed 12 nautical miles of territorial waters (and airspace), 24 miles contiguous zone and a 200 mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
A coastal state has full sovereignty over its territorial sea and exercises sovereign rights over the contiguous zone and the EEZ. The EEZ grants the coastal state all exploration rights over all natural resources.
Nobody—so far—is questioning the Philippines’ territorial waters or contiguous zone. What is disputed is the Philippines’ EEZ that covers the resource-rich KIG, which is part of the Spratlys island chain.
There is a Spratly island but the Philippines is not claiming it as part of the EEZ. China is claiming Spratly island along with the rest of the waters of the South China Sea by virtue of an old map drawn before the communists took control of Beijing. If that map is recognized, then the whole of Palawan would be covered by China’s EEZ.
But UNCLOS doesn’t recognize dibs on maritime areas by virtue of historic claims.
This puts China at loggerheads not just with the Philippines but also with Malaysia, Vietnam and Brunei, which are all claiming a portion of the South China Sea. Taiwan, because it says it is the real China, is claiming the entire South China Sea as well.
Sabban says that a lot of Chinese activities they’ve seen center around Reed Bank, where even Chinese media are saying is very rich in oil and gas reserves. Reed Bank, just southwest of the Shell-operated Malampaya Gas Field, is about 125 miles west of Palawan.
Reed Bank lies within the Philippine EEZ so Manila should have sole authority to exploit oil and gas reserves there not to mention the fishing rights.
China obviously thinks differently and acts in accordance to their beliefs, i.e. they have sovereign rights over the entire South China Sea.
Philippine authorities are concerned that Beijing would be so bold as to do another incursion as in Mischief Reef where the Chinese constructed what they say is a fisherman’s shelter but looks more like a fortified military garrison.
Admittedly, China is not the only country that has constructed permanent structures in the Spratlys chain. Claimant countries, even the Philippines, have established structures in areas they are claiming.
But it seems that only China is pushing to expand effective control in sectors where they previously had none.
A Filipino diplomat says it is prudent to speak out now about China’s actions “before it escalates to something that is not manageable.”
A Malacañang official says that the message is: ‘Not everything is negotiable now as it was in the previous administration.’
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