Panatag shoal – ellen tordesillas

PH to submit 300-year-old map to UN in case vs China

Published by Ellen on June 7, 2015

By Ellen T. Tordesillas,VERA Files

The Philippine government will be submitting to the Permanent Court for Arbitration in The Hague this week an almost 300-year-old map of the Philippines showing the disputed Scarborough Shoal being part of Philippine territory as far back as three centuries ago.

The map debunks the so-called nine-dash-line China has been using as proof of its claim over the South China Sea. It also locates Scarborough shoal, then known as “Panacot,” also called “Panatag” by Filipinos, off the shores of Luzon, then known as Nueva Castilla. Scarborough shoal has been a source of conflict between the Philippines and China.

The Jesuit priest Pedro Murillo Velarde had the map published in Manila in 1734. It surfaced in 2012 among the possessions of a British lord, who put it up for auction at Sotheby’s in London, where Filipino businessman Mel Velarde bid and got it for £170,500 ($266,869.46 or P12,014,463.09).

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

Published by Ellen on February 25, 2014

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?

Bajo de Masinloc crucial to China’s claim of whole South China Sea

Published by Ellen on January 21, 2013

By ELLEN TORDESILLAS, VERA Files (Conclusion) The permanent stationing of three of its ships in Bajo de Masinloc is part of China’s “creeping invasion” of…

Chinese ‘occupation’ of Bajo de Masinloc could reduce PH territorial waters by 38 percent

Published by Ellen on January 20, 2013

By ELLEN TORDESILLAS, VERA Files (First of two parts) The Philippines is at a loss over China’s declaration its ships will stay permanently in Bajo…

Rebuilding damaged ties with China

Published by Ellen on August 23, 2012

Jose Almonte — ‘We have to deal with ourselves first.’

Chito Sta. Romana, considered a China expert having lived in China for more than 30 years and worked as Beijing Bureau chief of ABC News, said Philippines-China relations are now at their lowest ebb since the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1975.

Sta. Romana, together with Brig. Gen. (ret.) Jose Almonte, former National Security Adviser, were the speakers in last Wednesday’s general membership meeting of the Makati Business Club at Hotel Intercon in Makati.

The unfortunate deterioration of relations with a global superpower and an Asian neighbor started last April 8 when the Philippine Navy’s pride, BRP Gregorio del Pilar, a hand-me down from the United States, arrested Chinese fishermen in Panatag shoal, also known as Scarborough shoal, 124 nautical miles off Zambales.

A mishandling of the situation characterized by rhetorics from the Philippines’ high officials led to a standoff that lasted almost two months. The territorial dispute spilled over to economic relations with China rejecting banana exports from the Philippines and Chinese tourists cancelling their scheduled trips to the Philippines.

Fishing ban not-so-well thought out

Published by Ellen on May 21, 2012

Filipino fishermen unload fish from a boat in Masinloc — Thanks to MSNBC for photo

It’s good that former Marine Capt. Nick Faeldon didn’t push through with his planned voyage Panatag shoal, also known as Scarborough shoal, where an almost one- and- half-month long standoff between the Philippines and China is a subject of informal diplomatic talks.

Faeldon, who was imprisoned for seven years for his participation in the 2003 Oakwood mutiny against Gloria Arroyo, had planned to set sail for Panatag shoal, last Friday together with fishermen from his home province, Batanes and fishermen from Masinloc, who are most affected by the conflict.

A call from the President Aquino Thursday aborted the plan, which would have really further riled the Chinese who are claiming the shoal, more than a thousand nautical miles away from their mainland. (Panatag shoal is 124 nautical miles from Zambales.)