Julian Felipe Reef is part of the Kalayaan Island Group and lies 175 nautical miles west of Bataraza town in Palawan. It is over 638 nautical miles from Hainan Island in the southern tip of China.
In 1978, Ferdinand Marcos issued Presidential Decree 1596, declaring Philippine sovereignty over the Kalayaan Islands including Julian Felipe Reef, which lie within the country’s 200-mile exclusive economic zone or EEZ.
In March last year, the country protested the presence of an estimated 220 Chinese militia vessels swarming in the vicinity of Julian Felipe. Beijing claimed these were fishing vessels taking shelter from rough waters. This was at the height of summer when the seas are calm.
Throughout April last year, the Department of Foreign Affairs fired a series of additional protests as the Chinese ships dispersed across the West Philippine Sea but lingered in the area. Filipino fishermen have complained of being driven away from their traditional fishing grounds by Chinese vessels.
A year later, the ships were again spotted last April, prompting another protest from the DFA. This was despite an hour-long phone conversation in the same month between President Duterte and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, during which the need to maintain peace and stability in the West Philippine Sea was stressed.
The incoming national security adviser has said the Philippines must keep filing diplomatic protests against Chinese incursions, because failure to do so could be construed as acquiescence to Beijing’s maritime claims, which have been fully invalidated by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.
Apart from filing diplomatic protests, the Philippines must take a more proactive stance in keeping unauthorized foreign vessels out of the country’s EEZ. The incoming administration must beef up the maritime patrol capability of the Philippine Coast Guard and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, which are not part of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. It doesn’t matter if the Chinese coast guard, which is under the supervision of its military, dwarfs Philippine maritime patrol assets. Might does not make right, and the Philippines must assert its sovereign rights in its waters.