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Tag: Bajo de Masinloc

PH ignores China request to delay filing of Memorial vs 9-dash line

Published by Ellen on March 27, 2014

China's 9-dask line
China’s 9-dash line

By Ellen T. Tordesillas, VERA Files

Despite Chinese requests to delay it, the Philippines is filing on March 30 its memorandum challenging before the United Nations China’s territorial claims over the South China Sea.

The memorandum, called a Memorial in international law, will be filed with the Arbitral Tribunal of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) at The Hague in the Netherlands, contesting China’s 9-dash line territorial rule.

Under the 9-dash line rule, China claims almost the whole of the South China Sea as part of its territory, but the Philippines and three other Southeast Asian nations are staking various claims to parts of the area.

Sources said the Chinese government had asked President Aquino through back channels to wait a little longer before filing the Memorial.

Continue readingPH ignores China request to delay filing of Memorial vs 9-dash line

Why the 28 day-delay in reacting to water cannon incident in Bajo de Masinloc

Published by Ellen on February 25, 2014

AFP Chiel Emmanuel Bautista
AFP Chiel Emmanuel Bautista
Why did it take Armed Forces Chief of Staff Emmanuel Bautista almost a month to tell the President and the Department of Foreign Affairs about the Chinese Coast Guards using water cannons against Filipino fishermen in Bajo de Masinloc?

The incident was reported when Bautista told Monday the foreign correspondents in the Philippines about the incident: “Chinese Coast Guard tried to drive away Filipino fishing vessels to the extent of using water cannon.

Asked if the Philippines would lodge a protest over the incident, Bautista said they would first have to investigate.

What? Twenty-eight days have passed and the government is still investigating?

Continue readingWhy the 28 day-delay in reacting to water cannon incident in Bajo de Masinloc

AFP probers say US, not China, put concrete blocks in Bajo de Masinloc

Published by Ellen on October 24, 2013
One of the photos shown by Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin during a congressional hearing.
One of the photos shown by Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin during a congressional hearing.

By Ellen Tordesillas,VERA Files

The concrete blocks in Bajo de Masinloc, which Philippine defense and military officials last month accused China of putting there, may have actually been placed by the United States Navy decades ago, military sources said.

A military investigation found that the concrete slabs were covered by algae, an indication that they had been in the area for many years. The probe also found that the blocks had been used by the U.S. Navy as “sinkers” to preserve the wreckage of old ships they used for target practice.

The information contradicts Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin’s statement at the congressional budget hearing in September in which he accused China of laying the foundation for structures similar to what it did in Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands in 1995.

Continue readingAFP probers say US, not China, put concrete blocks in Bajo de Masinloc

PH, China in battle of photos on Scarborough shoal

Published by Ellen on September 22, 2013

By Ellen Tordesillas, VERA Files

PH Navy photos, Sept. 2, 2013
PH Navy photos, Sept. 2, 2013
Concrete blocks or just rocks and corals?
Chinese photos taken second week of Sept. 2013
Chinese photos taken second week of Sept. 2013

That is the latest question troubling the strained relationship between the Philippines and China over the disputed Bajo de Masinloc, also known as Scarborough Shoal, off the South China Sea. This time, though, the dispute is playing out through photographs, more than words.

A week after the Armed Forces of the Philippines came out with photographs showing concrete blocks in Bajo de Masinloc, China released photos that showed only rocks and corals.

The photos sent by China to Philippine officials were said to have been taken second week of September to support the statement issued by China’s Foreign Ministry that the Philippine claim was “fabricated.”

Continue readingPH, China in battle of photos on Scarborough shoal

A guide to understanding the West Philippine Sea dispute

Published by Ellen on July 7, 2013

The Primer
The Primer
The Asian Center of the University of the Philippines has come out with a very useful document: The West Philippine Sea: Territorial and Maritime Jurisdiction Disputes from a Filipino Perspective.

It’s available online: http://www.babaylan.dk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/UP_Primer-on-the-West-Philippine-Sea_April-2013_0.pdf

Prepared under the direction of experts on the subject (Dean Eduardo T. Gonzalez of the Asian Center; Aileen S. P. Baviera, professor, Asian Center; and Jay Batongbacal, director, Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea of the UP College of Law), the timing of the primer is perfect as tension in the area continues to simmer.

The authors have succeeded in simplying the complicated topic. It covers history of the conflict and recent events. Bajo de Masinloc, also known as Panatag shoal and by its international name Scarborough Shoal (Chinese name is Huangyan island) which has been the area of conflict since the standoff April last year involving Chinese and the Philippine ships, is well covered.

Continue readingA guide to understanding the West Philippine Sea dispute

China’s occupation of Bajo de Masinloc gave PH no choice but go to U.N.

Published by Ellen on January 27, 2013

Two of three Chinese fishing vessels at Bajo de Masinloc
So far, all that Beijing has said of the Philippines’ suit asking the United Nations to declare as illegal its nine-dash-line map is that it “will complicate the issue.”

China reiterated its earlier denunciation of the Philippines’ “illegal occupation” of some islands in the South China Sea, referred to in the Philippines as “West Philippine Sea.”

Sources with contact in Beijing said China’s Foreign Ministry was “stunned” that the Philippines pushed through what they have been talking about for almost two years now.

Continue readingChina’s occupation of Bajo de Masinloc gave PH no choice but go to U.N.