GMA, Guingona set China visits

President Arroyo and Vice President Teofisto Guingona will make separate visits to China this year in a bid to resolve territorial disputes, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.

"The President will visit Shanghai in October," Foreign Undersecretary Lauro Baja said in a radio interview, adding that Guingona, also foreign secretary, would go to China in May.

DFA officials earlier this year said Guingona was scheduled to attend the Asia-Europe Meeting in China in May, to be followed by the President‘s state visit.

Baja said the visits should allow Manila to make a fresh push for the peaceful resolution of the territorial dispute between the two countries over outcrops and fishing areas in the South China Sea.

According to National Security Adviser Roilo Golez, the President has instructed the Cabinet to study long-term measures to address the country’s continuing territorial disputes with China. "The President instructed (the Cabinet) to further study longer term measures and strategies, including joint development ventures of areas in Scarborough," Golez said.

In the latest incident last week, the Philippine Navy boarded Chinese fishing boats near Scarborough Shoal and confiscated endangered giant clam shells and sacks of its meat.

Their catch and fishing equipment, including dynamite and cyanide tablets, were confiscated and the vessels and crew driven away from the area.

Baja described the confrontations as an irritant in bilateral ties and have provoked formal protests from both sides but Philippine officials reiterate that the dispute should be settled peacefully.

"There are diplomatic means of resolving this," Baja said, stressing that there is a need to address the danger of depleting marine resources in the shoal.

Baja said Manila was also concerned over the possibility that China could erect permanent structures on the shoal, located about 125 nautical miles west of the former US naval base of Subic Bay.

The Philippines bitterly protested a similar Chinese structure on Mischief Reef in the Spratly islands in 1995.

Beijing describes them as fishermen’s shelters although Manila suspects they are designed for military use. "We can’t be too sure if they are there to fish or to set up structures," Baja said. "We are claiming it for our own and so they should not engage in fishing there."

China claims all of the South China Sea and has refused to dismantle the structures.

Beijing concerned over trilateral naval exercises

Beijing has also expressed concern over the ongoing trilateral naval exercise among the Philippines, Thailand and the United States from Mar. 19 to 23.

Chinese embassy political counselor Chen Dehai said Beijing was expressing its concern due to its proximity to Scarborough Shoal but conceded that it could not intervene because it was an agreement between the Philippines and two other states.

The exercises are being conducted under the Visiting Forces Agreement between Manila and Washington.

There have been several exercises between Philippine and US troops in various parts of the country, including Scarborough Shoal.

"We hope the exercise will not do harm against China’s sovereignty," Chen said, reiterating that Scarborough Shoal "is an integral part of Chinese territory."

He said they were hoping the exercise would do good for peace and security in the region and not incite conflict.

The US Embassy, for its part, refused to comment on China’s reaction but stressed the exercise, dubbed Marsea 01, was just a small-scale search and rescue operation.

"Marsea is only one of the exercises that we routinely do with US allies in the world," Skipper said.

The Commission on the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFACom) said the naval exercises were held some 60 to 80 nautical miles off Zambales in the direction of the disputed shoal.

The exercises were among several activities scheduled as early as last year and have nothing to do with the recent intrusions of Chinese fishing vessels, the VFACom said.

The VFACom added the exercises are small-scale and involve only two patrol craft and an Islander plane from the Philippines, and two P3C Orion aircrafts from the US Navy and the Royal Thai Navy.

The exercises aim to enhance the level of defense cooperation between the three countries by allowing their navies to respond jointly and more effectively to peacetime operations.

VFACom officials also stressed the venue of the exercises was the same area used by the Philippines and the United States for its annual joint naval exercises.