Philippines ask Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam to join the case to K.O China from Asean Waters

illustration from voanews.com

 

Philippines asks neighbors to join case against China

 

 The Philippines on Thursday called on Malaysia, Vietnam and other claimants to join its legal challenge to China’s massive territorial claim in the South China Sea.

 

In a bold step, Filipino officials took their territorial disputes with China to international arbitration in January last year after Chinese government ships took control of a disputed shoal off the northwestern Philippines.

 

They asked the tribunal to declare China’s claim to about 80 percent of the strategic waters and Beijing’s seizure of eight South China Sea shoals and reefs illegal. China has ignored the legal challenge but the tribunal has proceeded and asked the Philippines to submit its legal arguments and evidence by March 30.

 

The Philippines chief lawyer, Solicitor-General Francis Jardeleza, said Malaysia, Vietnam and two other governments could either take part in the Philippine case or file their own complaints against China. Smaller countries, he said, can only have a chance to peacefully defend their territories against the Asian superpower in a legal arena.

 

“Where can the weak go?” Jardeleza asked in a Manila forum on the territorial disputes.

 

“We are here to prove that from the point of view of the rule of law, all of the actions and all of the claims of China are ... invalid.”

 

China, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have overlapping claims across the busy South China Sea. The disputes have periodically erupted into dangerous confrontations, sparking tensions and straining ties.

 

animation from wix.com

 

Law professor Raul Pangalangan told the forum that the Philippines wanted China to explain the limits and basis of its vast claims. China, Jardeleza said, could still change its mind and join the arbitration, which would take at least two years to conclude.

 

China has asked the other claimants to settle the disputes through one-on-one negotiations, something that would give it advantage because of its sheer size and clout. It has also warned Washington not to get involved.

 

The Philippines may include recent aggressive Chinese acts in its complaint, including what it said was the firing of a water cannon by a Chinese coast guard ship to drive away Filipino fishermen from the disputed Scarborough Shoal on Jan. 27, Jardeleza said.

 

China has controlled the shoal since Philippine vessels backed off from a tense standoff there in 2012. Chinese coast guard and surveillance ships have guarded the territory and chased away Filipino fishermen if they ventured close.

 

After the Philippines raised the Jan. 27 incident publicly, the Chinese Embassy in Manila responded that Beijing “has indisputable sovereignty over South China Sea islands and their adjacent waters,” Scarborough Shoal included. - Arab News

 

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China Fired Cannon to Philippine Fishermen in Palawan Waters

China used water cannon on Philippine fishermen Spratly Islands. Photo: rt.com

 

Philippines says China used water cannon on fishermen in disputed sea

MANILA (Reuters) - A Chinese coastguard ship used a water cannon last month to drive Filipino fishermen out of disputed waters in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), illustrating aggressive enforcement of new Chinese rules, the head of the Philippine military said on Monday.

 

China has since the beginning of the year required foreign fishing boats to get approval before entering waters that China claims as its own.

 

"The Chinese coastguard tried to drive away fishermen to the extent of using water cannon," Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Emmanuel Bautista told foreign correspondents, referring to a January 27 incident near the Scarborough Shoal.

 

China claims about 90 percent of the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea)'s 3.5 million sq km (1.35 million sq mile) waters. The sea provides 10 percent of the global fish catch, carries $5 trillion in ship-borne trade a year and is believed to be rich in energy.

 

Taiwan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Vietnam also claim parts of the sea.

 

Bautista declined to give more details about the confrontation in the area, about 130 nautical miles west of the main Philippine island of Luzon, saying the military still had to talk to the fishermen.

 

He said the Philippine military would try to avoid confrontation with China but would react if China used violence against Philippine fishermen.

 

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she was not aware of details of the situation, and repeated that China had sovereignty over the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) and its islands.

 

"The relevant Chinese maritime forces carry out normal official patrols in that area," she told a daily news briefing.

 

A senior Philippine navy official said it was the first time China used water cannon in the area.

 

"Our fishermen are used to playing a dangerous cat-and-mouse game but China has become very aggressive," said the navy official who declined to be identified because he is not authorised to speak to the media.

 

The Philippines has taken its dispute with China to arbitration under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea but China is refusing to participate in the case.

 

China has rejected challenges to its sovereignty claims and accused the Philippines of illegally occupying Chinese islands in the seas and of provoking tension.

 

This month, the commander of the U.S. Navy said the United States would come to the aid of the Philippines in the event of conflict with China over disputed waters.

 

The U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, Philip Goldberg, who was attending the same forum as Bautista, urged the Association of South East Asian Nations and China to accelerate negotiations on a code of conduct for the sea to avoid accidents and miscalculations.

 

"We believe that the agreement on the code of conduct is long overdue," Goldberg said, adding that the United States supported Philippine efforts to bring the dispute to international arbitration.

 

(Reporting By Manuel Mogato; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Reuters

 

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