EDITORIAL - Enforcing a claim

The last time the Philippines looked the other way in a territorial dispute with China, huts on stilts that Beijing claimed were mere shelters for its fishermen were expanded, and expanded, and expanded. Today a multistory building flying the Chinese flag and guarded by uniformed men sits atop the aptly named Mischief Reef, which the Philippines calls Panganiban Reef. The structure now looks very much like a military installation – exactly what the Philippines believed it was from the start.

Panganiban Reef lies 130 nautical miles from Palawan, well within the Philippines’ 200-mile exclusive economic zone. Manila claims the reef but failed to spot or prevent the construction of the huts on stilts reportedly during the monsoon season in 1994, and then failed to dismantle the huts when these were discovered. Some Philippine officials called it a “creeping invasion” by the Chinese, but failed to stop it.

This time the Chinese are enforcing their claim on Panatag or Scarborough Shoal, sending a fresh batch of three gunboats to the area in a continuing standoff with the Philippines. The standoff developed after the Philippine Navy apprehended eight Chinese boats caught around the shoal. Found in the boats were baby sharks and a large haul of endangered giant clams, whose harvesting is prohibited under Philippine environmental laws. Philippine authorities did not confiscate the banned items, and the boats simply left the area.

If that is the way the Philippines enforces its territorial claim, it’s not farfetched to expect another Chinese military garrison to rise soon over Panatag, a ring of coral with rocks surrounding a lagoon. The shoal, called Bajo de Masinloc since the Spanish period, is part of the Zambales municipality of Masinloc. The Philippines has raised its flag on some islets in the shoal and built, registered and operated a lighthouse in 1965. The shoal was used as an impact range by Philippine and US troops when the Americans had a naval base in Subic Bay. The Philippines must stand its ground in Panatag, and make sure it does not go the way of Panganiban Reef.