MANILA, Philippines (AP) – The Philippine government has expressed concern after detecting more than 200 Chinese fishing vessels believed to be equipped by militias on a reef claimed by both countries in the South China Sea, but did not file a protest immediately.
A government agency overseeing the disputed region said Saturday afternoon that about 220 Chinese boats were moored at Whitsun Reef on March 7th. He posted images of the ships lying side by side in one of the most sheltered areas of the strategic waterway.
The reef, which Manila calls Julian Felipe, is a shallow, boomerang-shaped coral region, about 324 kilometers west of the city of Bataraza, in the province of Palawan, in the western Philippines. It is within the country’s exclusive economic zone, over which the Philippines “enjoys the exclusive right to exploit or conserve any resource,” the agency said in a statement.
The large number of Chinese vessels is “a concern for the possible overfishing and destruction of the marine environment, as well as for risks to the safety of navigation,” he said, although he added that the boats did not fish when they were seen. .
When asked if the Philippines would file a protest, Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. tweeted “only if the generals tell me.”
Chinese embassy officials did not immediately comment. China, the Philippines and four other governments have been locked up for decades in a tense territorial clash over the rich and busy waterway.
Critics have repeatedly called on President Rodrigo Duterte, who has maintained friendly ties with Beijing since taking office in 2016, not to resist China’s aggressive behavior and decided not to immediately seek Chinese compliance with a ruling. international arbitration that invalidated Beijing’s historic claims of virtually the entire sea. China has refused to recognize the 2016 ruling and continues to challenge it.
The arbitration body also ruled that China had failed in its duty to respect the traditional fishing rights of Filipinos when Chinese forces blocked them from Scarborough Shoal off the northwestern Philippines in 2012. The Philippines, however, they also could not deny Chinese fishermen access to Scarborough, according to the ruling. The decision did not specify any other traditional fishing area within the exclusive zone of the Philippines where fishing could be allowed in China and other countries.
“When Xi says ‘I’ll fish,’ who can prevent it?” Duterte said two years ago that he was defending his non-confrontational approach, referring to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“If I send my sailors to expel the Chinese fishermen, I guarantee you that none of them will return home alive,” Duterte said at the time, adding that diplomatic talks with Beijing allowed the return of Filipinos to fishing grounds where the Chinese forces had already been driven away.
Duterte has sought infrastructure, trade and investment funds in China, which has also donated and pledged to deliver more COVID-19 vaccines as the Philippines faces an alarming increase in coronavirus infections.