Phl to take Chinese incursions to UN

MANILA, Philippines - The government will bring to the United Nations six to seven incidents of Chinese incursions into the country’s territorial waters, President Aquino said yesterday.

Malacañang also said the Philippines would act accordingly on a report that a Chinese warship had fired at local boats fishing in Quirino or Jackson Atoll in the West Philippine Sea.

The President expressed concern over the intrusions in a talk with reporters on Wednesday night in Brunei while he was on a state visit.

He said the Philippines was preparing to file a report before the UN on some “six to seven instances” of Chinese intrusion or provocative actions in the West Philippine Sea.

“We are completing the data. We will present it to them (China) and then bring these to the appropriate body, which most of the time is the United Nations,” Aquino said.

During his meeting with Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guangjie two weeks ago, Aquino already warned that continued provocative actions in the area could trigger an arms race in the region.

The firing incident involving Philippine fishing boats in the South China Sea happened on Feb. 25 before a Philippine-commissioned seismic vessel was reportedly harassed in the Reed Bank in western Palawan in March and before Chinese vessels laid steel posts and a buoy in May in the Amy Douglas (Iroquois) Bank southwest of Reed Bank, which Manila said was within its 200-mile exclusive economic zone.

Yet while the Philippine government protested the March and May incidents, one by note verbale another verbally, it did no such thing about the February incident.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the government was preparing what could be presented before the UN based on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

“We wish to reiterate that that is really the process that we need to take. And, again, we reiterate our commitment to resolve the dispute peacefully,” Valte said in a press briefing in Malacañang.

“We will prepare accordingly and we hope for the best,” Valte said.

She said the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) would take the lead in making sure that the country’s territorial claims were respected.

Aquino said he was hoping to visit Beijing in the third quarter of this year and would talk to China during upcoming regional summits.

Aquino said the best option to assert claims would be through diplomacy.

Aquino though noted that no amount of diplomatic efforts would stop the Chinese from intruding in the Spratlys.

Coming up with a central position on the South China Sea dispute among the claimant-countries within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) would be the best way to deal with a superpower like China, Aquino said.

Sensitive issue

Defense and military officials, meantime, are keeping their mouths shut over the alleged firing incident, saying the issue is highly sensitive.

Defense spokesman Eduardo Batac said all they can do for now is simply document the incidents in the South China Sea for appropriate diplomatic actions by the DFA.

“This particular incident though I will not confirm it, could be part of the incidents already officially reported by the DFA,” Batac said, referring to the Feb. 25 incident.

He stressed that it has been the position of both defense and military establishments that the country’s territorial dispute in the Spratlys with other claimant countries is best left handled by the DFA.

“The DFA will have jurisdiction over these matters as always, these have international repercussion,” Batac said.

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin has admitted that the country’s military, with limited and old gunboats and planes, could not be all over the area to safeguard the country’s marine and mineral resources.

This is the reason why, Gazmin said, the defense department is now expediting the procurement of equipment to upgrade the military’s internal and territorial defense capabilities.

“The incidents that have happened in the South China Sea, especially in areas where our islands are located, are eye openers that we cannot do away with without giving particular attention to our external defense,” Batac said.

But Batac also stressed the planned military buildup in the Kalayaan Island Group (KIG) could not be categorized as an arms race because in the first place, the country does not have sufficient funds to bankroll the full modernization of the military.

What is being done, he said, is for the country to put a credible presence and deterrents within the KIG area. – With Jaime Laude