Tag: Scarborough shoal

The pitfalls of joint development of Spratlys with China

Published by Ellen on July 10, 2016

It’s best that Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. study carefully the intricacies of joint exploration with China so he can advise President Rodrigo Duterte to go slow about it.

Yasay, in his clarification about what he said in an interview with Agence France Presse last week, said, ““As the ruling will not address sovereignty and delimitation, it is possible that some time in the future, claimant countries might consider entering into arrangements such as joint exploration and utilization of resources in disputed areas that do not prejudice the parties’ claims and delimitation of boundaries in accordance with Unclos (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea).”

Even if the Philippines gets a favorable ruling Tuesday on the issues they raised against China before the Permanent Court of Arbitration, there would still be a lot of complications about joint development of the disputed areas in the South China Sea.

The number one problem is China’s concept of “setting aside dispute and pursuing joint development.”

One of the resource materials on the issue in the website of the China’s Foreign Ministry, says “The concept of setting aside dispute and pursuing joint development has the following four elements: 1. The sovereignty of the territories concerned belongs to China. 2. When conditions are not ripe to bring about a thorough solution to territorial dispute, discussion on the issue of sovereignty may be postponed so that the dispute is set aside. To set aside dispute does not mean giving up sovereignty. It is just to leave the dispute aside for the time being. 3. The territories under dispute may be developed in a joint way. 4. The purpose of joint development is to enhance mutual understanding through cooperation and create conditions for the eventual resolution of territorial ownership.”

PNoy, Del Rosario responsible for PH losing control of Scarborough shoal

Published by Ellen on May 19, 2016

Presumptive President-elect Rodrigo Duterte said early this week he wants to know why the Philippines lost Scarborough Shoal.

When he said this, he was apparently under the impression that Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, who exposed his BPI bank deposits amounting to no less than P200 million despite before the May 9 elections, was responsible for the Philippines losing control over the coral reef formation 124 nautical miles off Zambales.

By all means, Duterte should order a probe.

The term “lost Scarborough shoal” is debatable. Security officials deny that. Foreign affairs officials will not say that because that would be detrimental to the claim of the Philippines on the shoal which is included in the case filed by the Philippines against China before the Arbitral Court.

The reality, however, is that Filipino fishermen are denied access to the area around the shoal by three Chinese ships stationed there since June 2012.

How that situation came to be started on April 10, 2012 when BRP Gregorio del Pilar arrested eight Chinese boats with sizable quantities of endangered marine species, corals, live sharks and giant clams.

Chinese fishermen caught in Philippine waters is not an unusual happening – be it in Scarborough shoal in the northwestern side of the country or in the Spratlys, in the southwestern part of the country. When that happens, the fishermen are charged in court and the Chinese Embassy works for their release. The case is usually handled in the provincial and regional level.

The use of BRP Gregorio del Pilar, a warship, to arrest Chinese fishing vessels changed the atmosphere in the maritime row.

A wealth of stories from the Murillo Velarde map

Published by Ellen on June 10, 2015

Looking at the almost 300- year-old Philippine map by Fr. Pedro Murillo Velarde which businessman Mel Velarde acquired for P12 million in an auction in London last year, one can see that the Jesuit priest is a great storyteller.

The 1734 Murillo Velarde map shows more than just locations. It has two panels on both sides engraved with images depicting lifestyles and special features of places. One panel shows a farmer plowing the field not far from a river with crocodiles. It’s noted that in Zamboanga, there’s “Pozo de Agua Dulce.” In general it showed Filipinos enjoying a highly civilized society.

But the most significant feature of the Murillo Velarde map is a tiny spot off the shores of Nueva Castilla, which was then the name of Luzon labeled “Panacot.”

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?

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.

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.

PH, China in battle of photos on Scarborough shoal

Published by Ellen on September 22, 2013

By Ellen Tordesillas, VERA Files

Concrete blocks or just rocks and corals?

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.”

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.)