Phl monitoring rescue of stuck Chinese ship

Manila, Philippines - The Philippines will continue to monitor efforts by China to extract its warship that ran aground in a shoal off Palawan, even as six Chinese naval vessels have reportedly arrived in the area purportedly to help in rescue and retrieval operations.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte made this clear yesterday even as she bared an offer from the government to help in the removal of the Chinese warship from Hasa Hasa Shoal, which is only 60 nautical miles from Rizal town in Palawan.

“We will be monitoring the progress of the rescue,” Valte said.

The Chinese embassy in Manila said there were efforts to salvage the frigate, but reports said Beijing did not seem to be making any move to remove the ship which, according to reports, was a frigate.

“If assistance is required then we are duty-bound to render... Dispute or no dispute, of course, we will render assistance if needed. Allow me to make that clarification. Because I did see a report from the Chinese embassy saying that the rescue on their side is underway. So as to the diplomatic implications, we will defer to the DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs),” Valte said over radio dzRB.

Valte said it would be up to the DFA to decide whether to file a diplomatic protest, since the Chinese military vessel was apparently patrolling within Philippine territory.

“If it did not run aground, from what I understand, that is disputed territory still, despite its proximity to Palawan. The element of the dispute is still there. So we will refrain from any comment because, as you know, we have committed not to take provocative actions under the code of conduct,” Valte said.

“What we can say is that if assistance is required, we will render it. To my knowledge, assistance has not been asked for but it will be given if it is,” she said.

The DFA, for its part, said it would have to find out why a Chinese vessel strayed into Philippine territory.

“We need to find out what really happened with the Chinese frigate in our territory,” Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez told The STAR.

“For now, we have instructed our embassy in Beijing to inform the Chinese Foreign Ministry that Philippine assets are willing to help the frigate get out of there,” he added.

“According to the information we got from the Information Department of the Ministry of National Defense of China, around 7 pm of July 11, a frigate of Chinese Navy ran aground accidentally at Half Moon Shoal of Nansha Isands during a routine patrol mission, with no personnel injured,” said Chinese embassy spokesman Hua Zhang.

He added “currently the rescue work by the Chinese Navy is underway.”

The Department of National Defense (DND) confirmed that a Jianghu-class Chinese guided-missile frigate with bow number 560 had run aground. No other details were provided.

Spotted

Military surveillance planes spotted before noon yesterday the Chinese warship that ran aground off Palawan, as well as six other Chinese vessels that appeared to be assisting the troubled ship.

Peter Paul Galvez, defense spokesman, citing air surveillance reports from the Western Command (Wescom), said that they have yet to hear from China the real mission of the six other ships.

“It’s been spotted by our military planes,” Galvez confirmed.

“All we can say for now is that the six Chinese ships are just within the vicinity of the grounded frigate. We want to know from China what’s the purpose of their of vessels in the area,” Galvez said.

“We are continuously monitoring the development on the ground while waiting the Chinese side to explain the presence and the purpose of their vessels in the area,” Galvez added.

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) is awaiting instructions on whether to assist in the removal of the troubled Chinese vessel or in the rescue of its crew, said spokesman Lt. Commander Armand Balilo.

“If there are orders, then we would follow. We are on stand by. If there are orders to go, we will render assistance for salvage operations and environmental protection,” he said.

The PCG has reportedly not sent any of its ships to the site.

Wire reports quoted Brig. Gen. Elmer Amon, deputy Wescom commander, as saying that while they have yet to hear from China on what really happened, Wescom is ready to provide any assistance.

But Amon maintained that Hasa Hasa Shoal is well within the country’s territorial waters and far from the disputed Spratly’s archipelago in the hotly contested West Philippine Sea.

Security analysts believe that the grounding incident is unlikely to escalate tensions in the region, but said there is still risk of accidental clash.

“In my mind, it is just a matter of time before one of these standoffs gets really ugly and people get killed,” Ian Storey, of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies based Singapore, said.

Rory Medcalf, director of the international security program at the Lowy Institute, said that it was alarming that the Chinese were now using naval vessels to patrol the disputed area.

“Does that mean sooner or later we will see confrontational incidents involving naval vessels rather than civilian agencies,” he said.

Meanwhile, Muntinlupa City Rep. Rodolfo Biazon expressed doubts yesterday that Beijing had intentionally let its frigate beach to strengthen its claim over the area.

Biazon, chairman of the House committee on national defense and security, said the vessel was apparently one of the newer vessels of China’s People’s Liberation Army so running it aground would be costly.

He recalled that in 1999, a Philippine Navy landing vessel ran aground at Panatag Shoal and Beijing strongly protested the incident, believing it was intentional to solidify the country’s claim over area.

“I strongly doubt if this was intentional,” Biazon told The STAR. “The Chinese presence in the area has long been a given so this incident is not a proof of anything.”

He cautioned against speculating too much on the incident, saying what the government should do is to offer assistance to the distressed vessel.

“That is if they will accept. We should do this not only for diplomatic purposes but also to honor the universal maritime code to help those in distress at sea,” the lawmaker said. With Jaime Laude, Evelyn Macairan, Paolo Romero, Pia Lee-Brago