2 CHINESE VESSELS SPOTTED OFF PALAWAN NEAR BALIKATAN SITE

MANILA, Philippines — Two Chinese naval vessels were spotted off Palawan near an area where Philippine, US and French warships were holding joint sail – on its last day yesterday – as part of the Balikatan exercises.

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), for its part, said it was monitoring the activities of Chinese-flagged research vessel Shen Kuo reportedly sighted traversing Philippine waters.

Western Command (Wescom) spokesman Capt. Ariel Joseph Coloma said Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) vessels with bow numbers 793 and 167 were spotted four to five nautical miles from the area where the Philippine, US and French ships were engaged in Multilateral Maritime Exercise (MME) some 33 nautical miles northwest of Quezon, Palawan.

Coloma said the information about the two Chinese vessels was received around 9 a.m.

The first MME among the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the US Indo-Pacific Command and the French Navy concluded yesterday in Palawan. It began on April 25.

The AFP said the MME marked a “historic milestone in regional cooperation and security.”

The ships involved in the MME were the Philippine Navy’s BRP Ramon Alcaraz, BRP Davao del Sur, US Navy landing ship dock Harpers Ferry and the French Navy frigate Vendemiaire.

The five-day exercise showcased the participants’ coordination in a simulated formation sailing scenario and documenting operations through proper photographic techniques for military purposes.

The participants also performed Surface Gun Exercise, which tested the participating navies’ live-fire capabilities and communication skills under challenging environment.

PCG spokesman Rear Admiral Armand Balilo said a PCG vessel was tracking the movement of the Chinese research vessel, as it was moving further south of the country’s waters.

Balilo earlier said the PCG’s 97-meter BRP Melchora Aquino – one of two ships taking part in the Northern Luzon leg of the Balikatan – would also be monitoring the Chinese research ship.

But with the Chinese ship reportedly moving south approaching Northern Samar, the Coast Guard official said they would have to assign another vessel to keep an eye on the Shen Kuo.

“We will check if there is another PCG vessel that could continue with the monitoring of the Shen Kuo at the eastern portion of the country. We have a vessel in Eastern Visayas that could take over the task of the BRP Melchora Aquino,” Balilo said, without naming the vessel.

He said the primary assignment of the Melchora Aquino was the Balikatan exercise. He also clarified that based on PCG’s latest monitoring, the Chinese vessel was outside Philippine territorial waters.

“There would be no problem because the Chinese research vessel enjoys freedom of navigation, so there is no need to be alarmed for as long as it does not encroach the 12 nautical miles from the shoreline,” he said.

Commodore Jay Tarriela, PCG-West Philippine Sea (WPS) spokesman, said that they have been monitoring the movements of the Shen Kuo through its Automatic Identification System.

Based on information gathered recently, the vessel departed from Shenzhen port on April 13 and passed through Itbayat and Basco, Batanes on April 22. It then sailed southward, coming within 11 nautical miles of the coast of Mapanas, Northern Samar on April 25.

It went up north and reached the waters off Catanduanes, where it was monitored by the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

“As of 6 p.m. yesterday, the vessel was slowly moving approximately 78 nautical miles northeast off Mapanas, Northern Samar,” Tarriela said.

Secret deal probe

Meanwhile, an administration lawmaker has filed a resolution in the House of Representatives calling for an inquiry into former president Rodrigo Duterte’s “gentleman’s agreement” on the West Philippine Sea with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“There is a necessity to look into such agreement to check if the same is true since it has been used as China’s justification of its harassment of Filipino resupply boats – including its use of water cannons on them,” Zambales first district Rep. Jefferson Khonghun said in his House Resolution 1684.

Speaker Martin Romualdez said the chamber will hold the inquiry before Congress goes on recess on May 24.

“While the former president confirmed at a press conference last April 11 in Davao City, and its main goal was to avert armed confrontation between Filipinos and Chinese in the WPS, it only favors Beijing and compromises the Philippines’ national interest,” Khonghun maintained.

“The so-called gentleman’s agreement, if any, is constitutionally void since it is tantamount to the surrender of our country’s sovereign rights over our exclusive economic zone,” Khonghun said.

Romualdez said he felt just as “horrified” as President Marcos when he learned of Duterte’s forging a secret deal with China.

Under the deal, according to the Duterte camp, the Philippines had agreed not to do repair work on the BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal.

“Ayungin Shoal is part of the country’s exclusive economic zone as reaffirmed by the July 2016 arbitral ruling on the South China Sea arbitration case,” Romualdez pointed out.

The House chief also referred to Article 56 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea or UNCLOS, which provides that “the coastal state, which in this case is clearly the Philippines, has the right to build and maintain structures within its EEZ.”

“This would clearly mean that our country has every right to protect and safeguard all features within our (EEZ) including the Ayungin Shoal,” he stressed.

“Our country’s territory, sovereignty and sovereign rights may have been compromised by a deal disguised as an ‘agreement’ to maintain the peace and status quo in the (WPS),” he added.

“We believe that, in the end, upholding our territorial integrity and sovereignty in accordance with our Constitution and with international law is what matters the most,” the Speaker said. — Delon Porcalla, Evelyn Macairan

2024-04-29T16:46:34Z dg43tfdfdgfd