Chinese navy stalked area: Filipino officials

Stop killings, say senators

MANILA, Philippines, Aug 22, (AP): China recently deployed navy and coast guard ships in a cluster of uninhabited sandbars in the disputed South China Sea amid concerns that the Philippines may build structures on them, two Filipino security officials said Tuesday. The government, however, said the issue was quickly resolved amid the Asian neighbors’ friendlier ties.

Two senior Philippine security officials told The Associated Press that three Chinese navy ships, a coast guard vessel and 10 fishing boats began keeping watch on Sandy Cay on Aug. 12 after a group of Filipino fishermen were spotted on the sandbars. The Filipinos eventually left but the Chinese stayed on.

The two spoke on condition of anonymity, saying only the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila has been authorized to publicly discuss issues related to the country’s territorial disputes with China. The foreign affairs department, however, has in recent days refused to divulge details of the situation at Sandy Cay, a cluster of three sandbars.

A senior Philippine diplomat, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because of a lack of authority to discuss the issue publicly, said China “is concerned that we will build” structures on the sandbars. Chinese and Philippine officials have quietly worked to resolve the issue in recent days, said the diplomat, who is involved in the talks.

A government security report seen by the AP says Chinese navy ships with bow numbers 504, 545 and 168, a Chinese coast guard ship with bow number 46115, and 10 Chinese fishing vessels took positions off Sandy Cay. Its nearest sandbar is about 2.5 nautical miles (4.6 kilometers) from Philippine-occupied Thitu Island.

On Aug. 15, a blue Chinese helicopter flew low off Thitu’s southwest coast, the report said.

Philippine troops and villagers based at Thitu call it Pag-asa —Tagalog for hope — while the Chinese call the island Zhongye Dao.

The Chinese military presence near Thitu sparked concerns in Manila.

Philippine Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, who has studied the disputes extensively, said the Chinese navy ships and other vessels encroached in the Philippine island’s 12-nautical mile (22-kilometer) territorial waters. “In short, Sandy Cay is a Philippine land territory that is being seized, to put it mildly, or being invaded, to put it frankly, by China,” Carpio said in a statement over the weekend.

Carpio

Political opponents of Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday urged him to end a culture of impunity and quell a surge in drug-related killings, amid widespread anger at police over the death of a teenager.

Allegations of a cover-up in last week’s death of Kian Loyd delos Santos has caused rare outrage among a public largely supportive of Duterte’s campaign, which saw more than 90 people killed last week in three nights of intensified police operations.

The 17-year-old student was killed in a rundown area of Manila and according to a forensic expert who conducted an autopsy, Delos Santos was shot in the back of the head and ears while on the floor, suggesting there was no gunfight, contrary to an official police report. The victim’s family reject police allegations he was a drug courier.

Drugs

Duterte has resolutely defended police on the front lines of his 14-month-old war on drugs, but late on Monday he said three officers involved in the teenager’s killing should be punished if found to have broken the law.

Duterte said he had seen the CCTV footage acquired by media which showed plain clothes police dragging a man matching the description of Delos Santos, to a location where he was later found dead.

Opposition Senator Leila de Lima, a detained critic of Duterte, challenged the president to order the police to stop killing.

“I dare you, Mr President, to issue a clear and categorical order to the entire police force to stop the killings now,” De Lima said in a handwritten note from a detention facility, where she is being held on charges of involvement in drugs trade inside jails, which she denies. “Just say it. Do it now, please.” Another senator, Risa Hontiveros, told the house Duterte had blood on his hands and “reveled in the deaths of drug addicts”, inspiring a culture of impunity and killing.

The US ambassador to the Philippines called Tuesday for “full accountability” following the alleged murder by local police of a 17-year-old boy as part of President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war.

The killing of Kian Delos Santos last week triggered rare protests against Duterte’s controversial but popular campaign to eradicate drugs, with critics saying it highlighted rampant rights abuses by police enforcing the crackdown.

“My condolences go out to the family and friends of Kian. Hope that the investigations lead to full accountability,” US ambassador to Manila Sung Kim said on his Twitter account. Duterte easily won presidential elections last year after promising to wipe out drugs in the country by waging an unprecedented crackdown in which tens of thousands of people would die.

Since he came into office 14 months ago, police have reported killing 3,500 people in anti-drug operations.

More than 2,000 other people have been killed in drug-related crimes and thousands more murdered in unexplained circumstances, according to police data.

The United States, a longtime ally of the Philippines, had under then-president Barack Obama led international criticism of Duterte’s drug war.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday said there could have been abuses in his government’s war on drugs and ordered the police to take custody of officers who were involved in the killing of a high school student last week.

In a hastily called news conference at the presidential palace, Duterte said he would not condone abuses and the police officers would have to face the consequences of their actions if that is the recommendation of a formal investigation.

“There is a possibility that in some of police incidents there could be abuses. I admit that,” Duterte said.

Duterte unleashed a crackdown the day he took office on June 30 last year after a convincing win in an election in which he campaigned heavily on a promise to use deadly force to wipe out crime and drugs. The firebrand leader, however, stepped back from defending the police as public anger mounts over the killing of Kian Loyd Delos Santos. Civil society groups and left-wing activists marched in the streets to protest killing.