Philippines denies China claim of seizing Sandy Cays
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has accused China of falsely claiming it had taken control of a sandbank near Pag-asa Island in the South China Sea over the weekend.
A joint operation by several law enforcement units on Sunday morning confirmed none of the three Pag-asa Cays showed signs of being occupied or controlled by China, contrary to reports of Chinese state media, National Security Council Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya said on Monday, April 28.
The Pag-asa Cays, or the Sandy Cays, refer to three small coalescing sand bars located less than 3.5 nautical miles from Pag-asa Island. This means it falls within the 12-nautical-mile territorial sea of Pag-asa Island, which Philippine officials say establishes the country's sovereignty over the area under international law.
"There is no truth whatsoever to the claim of the Chinese Coast Guard that the Pag-asa Cays have been seized," Malaya said during a press conference in Manila. "The facts on the ground do not support this statement."
China's state broadcaster CCTV had reported on Saturday that China Coast Guard officers (CCG) had "enforced maritime management and exercised sovereign jurisdiction" over the Pag-asa Cays, which Beijing calls Tiexian Jiao.
The state media report showed images of Chinese officers unfurling their flag and claimed they had conducted an "inspection" while collecting "video evidence regarding the illegal activities of the Philippines."
In response, the Philippine government had deployed four teams, with members drawn from the Philippine Navy, Coast Guard and the Philippine National Police's maritime group, to verify China's claims and to conduct a "routine and lawful exercise of maritime domain awareness."
Two teams were sent to Pag-asa Cay 1, while one team each was assigned to Cays 2 and 3.
What they found was no evidence of Chinese occupation or infrastructure on any of the cays, Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson Jay Tarriela said in the same press briefing.
The four teams were tasked with looking for evidence of "whether the Chinese government installed different infrastructure or monitoring devices or whatsoever at all these Pagasa case," Tarriela said.
"We can totally debunk the lie and disinformation with the People's Republic of China that they have already occupied the Pag-asa Cays," he added.
During the operation, however, the Philippine teams observed CCG vessel 5102 meandering some 1,000 yards east of Cay 2, according to a press release by the West Philippine Sea task force.
This cay is the biggest of the three and, according to Tarriela, the same cay where Chinese state media showed photos of their officers raising their flag.
The CCG vessel launched a smaller rigid-hull inflatable boat but never approached the land feature.
"From a certain distance, they were just taking photos and videos of the activities of the members of the team 2 while we were inspecting the immediate surrounding of Cay 2, " Tarriela said.
Seven Chinese maritime militia vessels were also spotted anchored between Pag-asa Cays 2 and 3, according to the task force.
Dominating the information space
Malaya tagged China's claims as a deliberate attempt to "dominate the information space" with misleading narratives designed to intimidate the Philippines and shape international perception of Beijing's territorial control of the South China Sea.
He said that while Philippine security officials view such claims as routine from the Chinese government, they can be alarming to the public.
"For us in the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea and to our security services, it's just one day in our lives. But to the public who will wake up today to news that a feature in the West Philippine Sea has been illegally seized by the Chinese Coast Guard is an alarming development," he said.
Because Manila exercises sovereignty over the Sandy Cays, it is "as if it is the same level as Davao City, Cagayan de Oro, Cebu City, Quezon City, and Ilocos Norte and many other parts of the Philippines," Malaya said.
"Therefore, any affront to the sovereignty of the Philippines in [the Pagasa Cays] is similar to an affront to the sovereignty of all other places in the mainland of the Philippine Archipelago," the task force spokesperson added.
The spokesperson of the China Coast Guard said in a statement Sunday evening that six personnel from the Philippines had "illegally boarded" the reef despite "warnings and dissuasion" from the Chinese side. Liu claimed that CCG personnel then "boarded the reef and investigated and dealt with it in accordance with the law" while urging the Philippines to "immediately stop its infringement."
Tarriela rejected China's version of events, saying, "The Chinese government are always good in twisting factual narrative, spreading misinformation, distorting facts."
The latest exchange is taking place amid the annual Balikatan military exercises between the Philippines and the United States, which began April 21 and will run until May 9.
One key component of the ongoing exercises is the Multilateral Maritime Event in the West Philippine Sea, involving both Philippine and US naval forces. The Philippine Navy reported Sunday that Chinese naval vessels were spotted near Philippine and other ships participating in the maritime event, approximately 60 nautical miles west of Zambales.
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