AFP: Chinese ship may have targeted Navy vessel at WPS
IT was the gun of a Chinese People’s Liberation Army-navy (PLAN) war ship that moved and was aimed at a Philippine Navy vessel while the latter was patrolling the country’s maritime waters in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) last week, a Navy official said on Thursday.
The clarification was made by Armed Forces Western Command (Wescom) chief Vice Admiral Rene Medina following the revelation on Twitter of Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. that the government has filed diplomatic protests against China over the recent incident at the WPS.
Locsin said the diplomatic protests covered the “pointing of a radar gun at a Philippine Navy ship in PH waters” and “declaring parts of Philippine territory as part of Hainan province— both violations of international law & Philippine sovereignty.”
When sought for a comment, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana initially said he has no idea “what a radar gun is,” and he would have to “ask the experts: Navy and PAF [Philippine Air Force].”
Later, he stated in separate statement released through Department of National Defense spokesman Arsenio “Popong” Andolong that he had already ordered Nav y officials to provide him a detailed report about the incident, which as the Navy said, happened on April 17.
“I have instructed the Philippine Navy to give me a detailed briefing on the incident. As announced by Secretary Locsin, the Department of Foreign Affairs filed a diplomatic protest which was received by the Chinese embassy today, 22 April,” Lorenzana said on Wednesday night.
Medina, while confirming the incident, said it was not a laser gun but the Gun Control Director (GCD) that was directed by the Chinese Navy ship against the BRP Conrado Yap, a refurbished corvette that the Nav y has acquired from South Korea.
“The Western Command confirms that the incident happened on February 17, 2020, through the report received from the Joint Task Force West [JTFW] and as revealed by the Commanding Officer of BRP Conrado Yap [PS39],” he said.
According to Medina, the BRP Conrado Yap left Puerto Princesa City on February 15 to conduct territorial defense operations and sovereignty patrol at Malampaya Natural Gas to Power Project and at the Kalayaan Island Group in the WPS.
Two days later and while the warship was sailing on its way to the Rizal Reef detachment, the vessel detected a radar contact of a “gray colored vessel.”
Citing the report of the Joint Task Force West, the BRP Conrado Yap was the first to issue radio challenge for which the Chinese Navy ship responded “the Chinese government has imputable sovereignty over the South China Sea, its islands and its adjacent waters.”
“PS39 again challenged the vessel and then instructed to proceed directly to its next destination. That vessel repeated its response and maintained her course and speed,” Medina said.
The Wescom commander said that PS39 was able to identify the Chinese ship as “PLAN Vessel bearing a bow number 514 [Corvette warship].”
“There, PS39 was able to visually observed that the Gun Control Director, an equipment that gives information in obtaining a fire control solution of said PLAN vessel was directed towards PS39,” Medina said.
“This Gun Control Director can be used to designate and track targets and makes all the main guns ready to fire in under a second,” he added.
The military commander said that “according to Joint Task Force West, while PS39 does not have the Electronic Support Measures [ESM] to confirm that PLAN Gun Control Director was directed towards her, visual identification confirms this hostile intent.”
“This hostile act on the part of Chinese government and encroachment within the Philippines’ EEZ [exclusive economic zone] is perceived as a clear violation of international law and Philippine sovereignty,” Medina said.
Medina said that after the incident, both vessels continued their respective voyage and the Wescom reported the incident to “higher headquarters.”
The hostile action taken by a Chinese corvette against the BRP
Conrado Yap within the country’s territorial waters was just among the provocations carried out by China in the waters that it disputes against its neighbors followed by the sinking of a Vietnamese fishing boat by a Chinese vessel within Vietnam’s maritime waters and the tailing of a Malaysian research vessel within its waters by another Chinese vessel.
Twin protests filed–locsin FOREIGN Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr., late Wednesday afternoon confirmed that the Chinese embassy has received two diplomatic protests he filed.
“One, on the pointing of a radar gun at a Philippine Navy ship in Philippine waters and two, declaring parts of Philippine territory as part of Hainan province. Both are violations of international law and Philippine sovereignty,” Locsin said in his official Twitter account.
“At 5:17 p.m. today [Wednesday] the Chinese embassy received 2 diplomatic protests: 1. on the pointing of a radar gun at a Philippine Navy ship in PH waters and 2. declaring parts of Philippine territory as part of Hainan province—both violations of international law and Philippine sovereignty.”
Expecting the usual barrage of questions from the media to clarify what he said, Locsin said: “We worked on this the whole day. And that is all that will be said on it because diplomatic notes are strictly confidential between the two states parties. Period.”
“I expect that no one else in the government will comment on it because they are not competent to do it. Only the President himself can reveal these notes of his alter ego, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs and rule thereon,” Locsin said.
Following his tweet about the diplomatic protests he filed, Locsin said that “China created Nansha district under the jurisdiction of Sansha City, akin to something we already protested in 2012.”
“Old hat but bears repeating the protest,” he added.
In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague dismissed as illegal China’s historical claim to the whole South China Sea (SCS), part of which is the Philippines’s West Philippine Sea.