32 Chinese ships in shoal, bar Pinoy fishers

[ChineseTiger1986]

Chinese maritime ships are denying Filipino fishermen access to their traditional fishing grounds in the lagoon of Panatag Shoal, a chain of reefs and rocks off Zambales province whose ownership is being disputed by China and the Philippines even as Chinese vessels were seen continuing to mass in Panatag, also known as Bajo de Masinloc and its international name, Scarborough Shoal—which China claims to own even if the shoal is 472 nautical miles from the nearest Chinese coast.

According to the local government of Masinloc, which is only 124 nautical miles from Panatag, the town’s fishermen have reported that Chinese government vessels had blocked their entry to the lagoon.

The military reported that the number of Chinese vessels in the Panatag Shoal has increased to 33, from 14 last week.

The Philippines has only two vessels in the area. These are the BRP Edsa II, a Coast Guard search-and-rescue vessel (SARV 002) and the MCS 3001, a vessel belonging to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources.

China currently has three big ships in the area. These are the Chinese Fisheries Law Enforcement Command (FLEC) 310 which is said to be its most powerful maritime ship, and the Chinese Maritime Surveillance (CMS) ships 75 and 81.

According to the military’s Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom), seven other Chinese fishing vessels and 23 utility boats have been seen inside the lagoon.

RJ Bautista, secretary to Masinloc Mayor Desiree Edora, said the Chinese maritime ships were preventing Filipino fishermen from fishing in the lagoon.

Rich fishing grounds

The vast lagoon constitutes rich fishing grounds for Filipino fishermen who before the stand-off with China usually stayed to fish in the area for days.

“They are still prevented from going in (the lagoon). They can fish outside. But they are barred inside,” Bautista told defense reporters in a phone interview.

“We were told they were prevented by the (Chinese) Navy or Coast Guard. Our fishermen are okay with Chinese fishermen. The problem is they have gunboats there,” he said.

Bautista said the Chinese ships were positioned at the entrance to the lagoon.

“Those who want to go in are shooed away. Since they cannot understand each other, our fishermen are afraid,” he said, adding that the Chinese ships would train powerful floodlights on Filipino fishing boats.

Bautista said the fishermen were only recently allowed to return to the shoal, which the locals refer to as Karburo (after the international name Scarborough Shoal) since the stand-off began last April 10.

“That’s why their catch is not as much, unlike before,” he said.

Coast Guard helpless

The Coast Guard ship is reportedly aware of the fishermen’s plight but was not of any help.

“I think our Coast Guard was also barred from going near (the lagoon),” Bautista said, relaying reports from fishermen.

“Our fishermen are simply told not to be afraid. But at the same time they are told not to provoke so there won’t be any confrontation,” he said.

Nolcom spokesperson Capt. Aurelio Kigis said they have no information that Filipino fishermen were being barred from the lagoon, and could not comment.

War of words so far

The Panatag Shoal incident started last April 8 when the Philippine Navy on a routine sovereignty patrol spotted eight Chinese fishing vessels moored inside the shoal. Navy personnel boarded the vessels and discovered on board illegally obtained endangered turtles, baby sharks, giant clams and a large amount of corals.

The Navy dispatched its only warship, the BRP Gregorio del Pilar, to the area on April 10 but before the ship could tow the poachers to the nearest police station, two Chinese maritime ships arrived and blocked their arrest.

The stand-off at Panatag has so far been accompanied only by a war of words.

The Philippines maintains that Bajo de Masinloc, described as a ring-shaped coral reef, which has several rocks encircling a lagoon in the West Philippine Sea, is about 124 nautical mile (220 km) from the nearest coast of Luzon and well within the Philippines’ 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and continental shelf under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos).

It said the shoal is an integral part of Philippine territory, a part of the municipality of Masinloc, Zambales. It said the shoal is also not part of the Spratlys, the chain of islets and atolls to its south that is claimed in whole or in part by China, Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines.

The government said the actions of the Chinese fishing vessels were a serious violation of the Philippine sovereignty and maritime jurisdiction. The poaching of endangered marine resources violoated the Fisheries Code and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES), it said.

Relative ships’ positions

The Nolcom said that as of Sunday, May 6, the BRP Edsa II was 7.1 nautical miles southeast off Panatag Shoal.

The Coast Guard vessel has moved farther by 5.7 nautical miles southeast from its previous position last week which was 1.4 nautical miles northeast off South Rock, a rock feature of Panatag Shoal.

The MCS 3001 is 1.6 nautical miles northeast off South Rock.

Meanwhile, the Chinese CMS 75 is 3.5 nautical miles southeast off North Rock, another Panatag rock feature, and a distance of 8.1 nautical miles northeast from BRP Edsa II.

The CMS 81 is 1.04 nautical miles southeast off North Rock and a distance of 8.1 nautical miles northeast from BRP Edsa II.

The FLEC 310 is 8.4 nautical miles southeast off North Rock and a distance of 7.5 nautical miles from BRP Edsa II.

2nd cutter for Navy

Vice Adm. Alexander Pama, Philippine Navy Flag Officer in Command, said a second US Coast Guard cutter that the Navy has acquired, will be arriving in the country in November.

The Hamilton-class cutter will be officially turned over to the Navy on May 23, following which the training of Filipino crew and adjustments to the vessel will follow, Pama said.

He said the government will be spending about the same amount it spent for the first US Coast Guard cutter that it acquired, which has been renamed the BRP Gregorio del Pilar.

Pama said last year that P400 million was spent for the training and refurbishment of the BRP Gregorio del Pilar.

32 Chinese ships in shoal, bar Pinoy fishers | Inquirer Global Nation

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Sorry Pinoys, this is our island, maybe you can fish in somewhere else in the Pacific Ocean.

 

[Fanling Monk]

Platyer2:Had Aquino used diplomacy instead of intimidation by sending the newly acquired antiquated Del Pilar when this whole thing started we wouldn't be in this predicament.Now what is Aquino's next brilliant move?

Mario-Garcia:Aquino is playing the US card like Marcos playing the Soviet card, both cards will bring disaster to the Philippines. Lets play the China card, maybe we'll win.


Sensible comments by these 2 Filipinos. Don't bully the big boys unless you can back it up otherwise you are rounding up the one being hurt.

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

Platyer2:Had Aquino used diplomacy instead of intimidation by sending the newly acquired antiquated Del Pilar when this whole thing started we wouldn't be in this predicament.Now what is Aquino's next brilliant move?

Mario-Garcia:Aquino is playing the US card like Marcos playing the Soviet card, both cards will bring disaster to the Philippines. Lets play the China card, maybe we'll win.


Sensible comments by these 2 Filipinos. Don't bully the big boys unless you can back it up otherwise you are rounding up the one being hurt.

Well, US wants them to procrastinate China with those islands disputes, not want them to provoke China endlessly which will give China a good excuse to take them out.

US is not going to start a conflict with China just for a third world Asian nation, for them it is better to have those islands belong to no one, so they can freely sail everywhere at their own will.

 

[NiceGuy]

Time for Phillipne to attack China's merchan ship,oil tanker passing through SCS(east sea), VN-US support Phil to destroy China's economy now

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

Time for Phillipne to attack China's merchan ship,oil tanker passing through SCS(east sea), VN-US support Phil to destroy China's economy now

Well, you should learn how to first protect your own fishermen from the Pinoys.

20 Vietnamese fishermen nabbed for poaching turtles off Palawan | Inquirer Global Nation

 

[Barrack-Obummer]

Sinophobia also gains ground By Joel D Adriano

MANILA - As the maritime standoff between China and the Philippines over Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea nears one month, Philippine legislators are preparing a retaliatory trade war by calling for a boycott on Chinese-made goods.

House minority leader Danilo Suarez said he will suggest a resolution to impose "a simple economic sanction to China" when Congress resumed session on May 7. His proposed move would

likely involve a review of all the goods and services the Philippines imports from China. Other congressmen are pushing for punitive new taxes aimed at pricing China-made goods out of local markets.

Sinophobia is on the rise in the Philippines as perceptions gain currency that China is bullying its smaller Southeast Asian neighbors, particularly over contested territorial claims in the potentially energy resource rich South China Sea. Growing trade and investment linkages, however, will make it difficult for Philippine legislators to follow through on their boycott and tariff threats.

China's previous "soft power" campaign, characterized by trade and investment initiatives, have strengthened regional economic integration and will likely temper individual country's response to its now rising assertiveness. As Manila now bids to recalibrate its trade and diplomacy more towards the US and European Union, the economic reality is that China represents a still fast expanding major market while growth in the crisis-hit West is expected to remain flat for the foreseeable future.

A soon-to-be-implemented China-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Free Trade Agreement is expected to accelerate that integration trend. The latest official trade figures in the Philippines show that China is the country's third-largest export market, accounting for 13.3% of total trade and lagging only Japan (18%) and the US (15.5%). Last year the Philippines notched an over US$1 billion trade surplus with China, led by exports of electronics and electronics components.

The legislative threats are already causing ripple effects in the Philippine business community. "We foresee that (China) will become the top export market for the Philippines come 2016," said Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr, president of PhilExport, a trade lobby group. "At the end of the day, we will be at the losing end [of a boycott on Chinese goods.] If they retaliate, we would lose a big market for our products."

Legislator Suarez told Asia Times Online that he prefers to use the term "economic sanction" as opposed to a full-blown ban on Chinese goods. He noted any such ban could prompt China to retaliate by either blocking Philippine imports or sending home hundreds of thousands overseas Filipino workers based in Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China. He also acknowledged a boycott would be difficult economically because cheap Chinese goods help to contain domestic inflation.

"The sanction is basically just a statement that we would not be intimidated against China's bullying," Suarez said.

Ortiz-Luis emphasized that average Filipinos would suffer the most from any anti-China boycott because prices of many goods, especially food, would sharply rise due to more expensive imports. Small-scale entrepreneurs would lose resupplies of their China-made merchandise, resulting in business closures and job losses, he said.

"We have to be realistic that we can't win it economically or militarily" if we go head-to-head with China, Ortiz-Luis said.

The current bilateral confrontation is the most serious since 1995, when China forcibly took Mischief Reef, an area in the contested Spratly Islands close to the Philippine island of Palawan. The Scarborough Shoal is just 230 kilometers from the country's main island of Luzon and a few more kilometers from its capital Manila; China's nearest territory, Hainan province, is located some 1,200 kilometers away from the shoal.

China claims all of the South China Sea as part of its historic territory, including waters and islands close to the coast of the Philippines. Beijing had said it doesn't recognize the United Nations-set 200 mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) because of what it refers to as its "historic rights". The Philippines has countered that Scarborough Shoal has been included in Philippine maps since 1743 and that the disputed islands are within its EEZ.

The standoff has elicited a surge of anti-Philippine rhetoric in China. Global Times, a state-run Chinese newspaper, suggested in a recent editorial that China "should select the most arrogant provocateur, conduct comprehensive strikes, and exert pressure economically, politically and militarily". A Chinese army general was quoted in another newspaper commentary published by the state-owned website china.org.cn calling for "decisive action" against the Philippines and suggested that China hasn't abandoned the idea of "war at all cost".

Philippine appeals to ASEAN to take a unified stand against Chinese aggression have so far fallen on deaf ears inside the grouping, which is increasingly split between pro-US and pro-China camps. President Benigno Aquino said in a recent speech that "our weapon really is for the world to know what [China is] doing. These nations could start thinking if this how we are being treated, maybe there will come a time that they will get the same treatment."

China's perceived bullying threatens to spark a wider nationalistic backlash in the Philippines. Senate organizer Loida Nicolas Lewis of the US Pinoys for Good Governance has called on the over 12 million Filipinos abroad to rally in front of Chinese embassies and consulates on May 11 to protest China's encroachment at Scarborough Shoal.

At home, those pledging to join the rally include former Philippine president Fidel Ramos and Broadway star Lea Salonga. Even the Philippines' top communist leader, Jose Maria Sison, supports the Philippines' claim to Scarborough Shoal and has called China's historical claims "absurd".

Ethnic Chinese Filipinos, who run several major conglomerates and by some estimates the bulk of the local economy, are worried that simmering anti-Chinese sentiments could hit their business interests, including through local boycotts against their products and services.

Others with extensive business interests in mainland China are concerned that Beijing could respond to any boycott by making it more difficult for them to do business there, according to a private consultant who works with one local Chinese business owner.

Joel D Adriano is an independent consultant and award-winning freelance journalist. He was a sub-editor for the business section of The Manila Times and writes for ASEAN BizTimes, Safe Democracy and People's Tonight.

(Copyright 2012 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)



10% of the entire worlds fisheries catches are caught in the SCS making it vitally important to the economies of ALL surrounding nations. Shino-phobia is correct. In reality, China has the power to do anything it really wants right now. However, bullying you're way around things is not the way to do it my friends. Look at the united states, we are proof that its not good business. Your claiming of every little piece of land you deem fit won't go unnoticed... Almost reminds me of Hitler and his demand for "lebensraum" (living space) in the 30's. But who am I to talk?

 

[shuttler]

Liang visits Pentagon, Panetta
Updated: 2012-05-08 11:21
By Tan Yingzi in Washington (China Daily)

Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie, in a visit to the Pentagon on Monday, met with United States Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and called for the two sides to continue to build upon their military ties.

After meeting with Panetta, Liang told a news conference that the two sides are committed to continue building a sound, stable and reliable military-to-military relationship through more communication.

"Facing the complicated and serious security situation in Asia-Pacific, both of us agree that it is in line with our own interests to strengthen the cooperation between the two militaries in order to protect the peace and stability of the region," he said.

Liang, who arrived on Friday, is the first Chinese defense minister to visit the US in nine years. His trip to the US was postponed last year after Washington announced it would sell weapons to Taiwan, a move Beijing strongly opposes.

Panetta hailed the talk with Liang as "productive" with topics ranging from regional issues to maritime and cyber security.

"The United States and China are both Pacific powers and our relationship is one of the most critical in the world," he said. "We share many interests across the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. It is central for our two nations to communicate effectively on a range of challenging issues."

Panetta said that although the two countries have different views on several issues, "we believe our military-to-military dialogue is critical to ensure that we avoid dangerous misunderstandings and misperceptions that could lead to crisis".

As the new US military strategy shifts to the Asia-Pacific region, he said, the US wants to enhance cooperation with China.

Though Washington recognizes that the US and China share common interests in the region's stability and prosperity, it believes that China's rise will affect the region's economy and security. According to a report by the Pentagon, the US is worried about China's military buildup.

Panetta said that he is looking forward to his visit to China in the coming months.

Both sides also agreed to hold a joint exercise on counter-piracy in the Gulf of Aden in western Africa later this year.

The Chinese minister visited the naval base in San Diego and met with US Deputy State Secretary William Burns on Monday morning.

He will visit military bases in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Liang visits Pentagon, Panetta|Home|chinadaily.com.cn

They must have exchanged their respective military stance on the current situation and their next options. Am I smelling phospherous in the air ?!

Ethnic Chinese Filipinos, who run several major conglomerates and by some estimates the bulk of the local economy, are worried that simmering anti-Chinese sentiments could hit their business interests, including through local boycotts against their products and services.

Others with extensive business interests in mainland China are concerned that Beijing could respond to any boycott by making it more difficult for them to do business there, according to a private consultant who works with one local Chinese business owner.

The Chinese Embassy needs to have contingentcy plan for the security of these folks! I am awaiting to see the evacuation of the staff of all Chinese Foreign Affairs Offices at the Philippines fairly soon! I hope the Filippino government wakes up before its too late!

 

[Yukio]

Even a million China Ships can not change the location of the Scarborough Shoal. China must respect the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Philippines and other claimants in SCS.

 

[somebozo]

Time for Phillipne to attack China's merchan ship,oil tanker passing through SCS(east sea), VN-US support Phil to destroy China's economy now

All of that is not needed if shipments can be routed visa Gawader - Pakistan

 

[NiceGuy]

All of that is not needed if shipments can be routed visa Gawader - Pakistan

But it hard to transport a huge cagro and oil from Gawader to coastal cities like HongKong-Macau, and the transport fee from Gawader to coastal cities is much more expensive than transport by ship too.

China can't use your port to transport all , she won't spend lots of money to create 'String of Pearl ' if your port can solve her problem.

 

[itaskol]

Time for Phillipne to attack China's merchan ship,oil tanker passing through SCS(east sea), VN-US support Phil to destroy China's economy now

ja, just attack our ships. it is really what we want to see.
we will try everything to make phillipine open fire first.

 

[auspice]

China is in a delusional state of their mind. Just look at this map that's where the reality is. Open your eyes chinese people , Scarborough shoal is within the Philippine territory, just respect that , STOP GREEDINESS and please use your common sense, the shoal is way too far from your country.

if China have a legal documents to back their claims then why are they afraid to go to international court? It just doesn't make sense. What they really want for the Philippine untouched marine life and territories was to exploit and pacify their hunger from all crawling things on earth. China have more people to feed that's why they do all their effort to advance and claim other territories.

 

[NiceGuy]

ja, just attack our ships. it is really what we want to see.
we will try everything to make phillipine open fire first.

if you keep pushing Phillipne and violating international laws, then the World will support Phil to shoot your ship.

if China have a legal documents to back their claims then why are they afraid to go to international court? It just doesn't make sense. What they really want for the Philippine untouched marine life and territories was to exploit and pacify their hunger from all crawling things on earth. China have more people to feed that's why they do all their effort to advance and claim other territories

people never seen Scarborough shoal on China map in Qing dynasty , so it belong to Phillipne bcz it inside your EEZ

 

[Hack-Hook]

if China have a legal documents to back their claims then why are they afraid to go to international court? It just doesn't make sense. What they really want for the Philippine untouched marine life and territories was to exploit and pacify their hunger from all crawling things on earth. China have more people to feed that's why they do all their effort to advance and claim other territories.

well we also have tons of document that prove our ownership over 3 Islands in Persian Gulf ,but we also don't want to go to any international court as its also better to solve these misunderstandings in bilateral talks in a friendly environment while drinking a cup of tea rather than going to the court and solve it in a hostile environment.

 

[auspice]

well we also have tons of document that prove our ownership over 3 Islands in Persian Gulf ,but we also don't want to go to any international court as its also better to solve these misunderstandings in bilateral talks in a friendly environment while drinking a cup of tea rather than going to the court and solve it in a hostile environment.

That is the reason why the Philippines is insisting that the impasse be coursed thru the United Nations because thats the legal way. What documents are they talking about? If they are really sincere then it should be thru the mediation of the International Community especially if China is a known BULLY.