MANILA, Philippines - China sees the submission of the dispute over Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal to international arbitration as a “weird” thing in international affairs.
At a press conference in Beijing on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said China has sovereignty over the shoal, also called Bajo de Masinloc in old Philippine maps.
“Isn’t it a weird thing in international affairs to submit a sovereign country’s territory to international arbitration?” he said. “What a chaos the world will be in if this happens.”
Hong said China has full historical and jurisprudential evidence of its sovereignty over the shoal.
“Whatever the Philippines do or say regarding the sovereignty of the island cannot alter the fact that the island belongs to China,” he said.
Hong said the Philippines unilaterally provoked the situation in Panatag Shoal.
Over time the Philippines has been escalating the situation regardless of the consequences, he added.
Last July, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario first raised to Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and Vice President Xi Jinping the issue of bringing the Philippine and Chinese claims to the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS).
However, the response Del Rosario received was that the Philippines and China should undertake to settle the matter *****erally and not to use a dispute settlement mechanism.
“So effectively they said no to our suggestion that we take it to international arbitration,” Del Rosario said.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Liu Weimin accused the Philippines of unilaterally misinterpreting the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
“Its (Philippines) claim of a ‘200 nautical miles of exclusive economic zones’ has impaired China’s territorial claim, which is in itself against international law. International rules are made jointly by all countries in the world, and countries, big or small, should abide by them. We believe the public are able to tell right from wrong,” Liu said.
China warned on Monday the Philippines about preparations Beijing has made to respond to any escalation of the situation in the area.
On Monday, Vice Foreign Minister Fu Ying summoned Alex Chua, charge d’affaires of the Philippine embassy in Beijing, to make a serious representation over the current incident at Panatag Shoal.
Fu said that it has been almost a month since the incident at Bajo de Masinloc occurred and it should have been ended early.
On Thursday, Del Rosario said the Philippines is willing to match Beijing’s announcement of preparations for an escalation of tensions in Panatag Shoal with “diplomatic consultations,” unless the message is meant to intimidate.
China has urged the Philippines to return to the right track of a diplomatic resolution to the island situation.
UNCLOS supports the Philippine claim to sovereignty in Panatag Shoal and international law is clear in terms of the fact that the Philippines is well within the 200-nautical mile EEZ and also within the continental shelf.
China stands solely on a historical claim.
No Chinese flag on Panatag
Coast Guard Commandant Vice Adm. Edmund Tan denied yesterday news reports that an unidentified man was able to plant a Chinese flag on Panatag Shoal.
Last Thursday, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported that a Chinese national was able to plant a flag on the disputed shoal.
Acting Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Rommel Supangan said the news report is not true.
“Our ship is there and it gives report to Vice Admiral Tan every two hours and there is no such information,” he said.
Supangan said the monitoring control and surveillance vessel that the Coast Guard jointly operates with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources is in the lagoon.
“We also have six Filipino fishing boats in the area,” he said.
Supangan said they would sometimes dispatch a rubber boat to scour the shoal.
Filipino fishermen are still going to the shoal, he added.
Supangan said the Coast Guard detachment at Masinloc, Zambales has reported that Filipino fishermen would go out to the lagoon despite the presence of Chinese vessels.
Chinese fishing boats in the lagoon are coexisting with Filipino fishermen, he added. –
With Evelyn Macairan
China: Int'l arbitration weird - The Philippine Star » News » Headlines