Philippines blinks as new spat erupts with China in Spratlys
The Philippines has abandoned work on a hut for fishermen at a newly formed sandbar in the disputed South China Sea after China registered its protests.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana yesterday, November 8, said the country had a new territorial spat with China a day after President Rodrigo Duterte said he would be “frank” with Chinese officials about his concerns on the territorial dispute in the South China Sea when he meets with them for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Vietnam next week.
The dispute over a string of sandbars called Sandy Cay emerged in August and prompted China and the Philippines to consider negotiating some sort of protocol or arrangement to allow both sides to prevent such incidents from spiraling out of control, Lorenzana said.
The rift over the tiny sandbar near the Philippine occupied Thitu island, known in the Philippines as Pagasa Island, in the Spratly archipelago remains unresolved but both sides pledged not to occupy any new territory, he said.
China's claims to most of the South China Sea overlap with those by the Philippines and four other governments. Despite that, tensions have eased since Duterte took over as president
last year and took steps to thaw once-frosty relations Beijing.
Duterte has courted Chinese trade and assistance and taken a nonconfrontational approach to their territorial disputes. He has refused to immediately take up with China a ruling by a U.N.-linked tribunal that invalidated Beijing’s sprawling claims in the South China Sea, sparking criticism from nationalists and left-wing groups that wanted him to demand Chinese compliance with the landmark decision immediately.
“We tried to put some structures in one of the sandbars near our island and the Chinese reacted,” Lorenzana told a diplomatic forum in Manila, adding that Duterte later ordered, “Let’s pull out.”
Duterte made the decision after Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano advised him of an agreement involving China and the Philippines for a halt on new construction in the disputed waters, Lorenzana later told a news conference. Philippine foreign affairs and military officials refused to divulge details of the dispute at Sandy Cay in August.
A government security report seen by the AP in August said three Chinese navy ships, a Chinese coast guard ship 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 — Filipino for hope — while the Chinese call the island Zhongye Dao.
The Chinese military presence off Sandy Cay near Thitu sparked concerns in Manila.
Philippine Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, who has studied the disputes extensively, said then that 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.
The long-unresolved disputes are expected to be among the issues that would get the spotlight in an annual summit of Southeast Asian nations and their Asian and Western counterparts in Manila next week.
Lorenzana welcomed progress in efforts by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which includes four claimant countries in the South China Sea, and China to negotiate a so-called code of conduct to prevent armed conflicts from erupting in the strategic waters.
In a speech at 67th anniversary celebration of the Philippine Marine Press Corps held in Taguig City Tuesday, Duterte said he would express to Chinese officials the Philippines’ concerns over the potential changes to the “entire geography of the world,” if the South China Sea dispute exacerbates.
Duterte is expected to meet with Chinese officials at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) forum in Vietnam this week.
“It is the politics and power that could change the entire landscape of the political situation of the world. It is really a geopolitic thing and we just have to consider ourselves now, not in a defensive position, but to insist that it is our position and we do not have (to be adversarial),” Duterte said.
“I’m going to Apec tomorrow and we have the bilateral (meetings). It would be at the time that I will be frank with China also. I know where (it’s) going, the direction and the game of geopolitics. I said, it would change the entire landscape of Southeast Asia if something goes wrong,” he added.
Duterte had previously stressed that it is not the proper time to challenge China as it would only yield grave repercussions.
“If I were to insist on ou arbitral claim as demanded by some of the justices, I would run afoul with everything else because China is not only the power[ful nation] that is claiming a part of the China Sea,” the President said.
“I hope you understand that because I cannot afford to go to war. You know, I know that it would end up in a massacre. I cannot start a [war with China]. We do not (have) nuclear arms and everything; as a matter of fact, we’re just bystanders,” he added.
For now, Duterte said he would just remain optismistic that Chinese President XI Jinping would honor his earlier promise not to build artificial islands in the contested waters.
He, however, assured the public that he was merely waiting for the right time to assert the country’s position about “what we think is ours.”
“I just hope that he (Xi) would honor it because it will change the entire geography of the world. And war starts. I don’t know what will be the next geographical division of Asia,” Duterte said.
“But you will have to trust me that I will go there (and) I will assert something, and that is our inherent right one day to really put at stake to what we think is ours. It is not the time to do it,” he added.