The Philippines deployed biggest warship/frigate Rajah Humabon to Spratlys

* Class and type: Datu Kalantiaw class * Type: Destroyer Escort / Frigate * Displacement: 1,390 tons standard, 1,620 tons full load * Length: 306 ft (93 m) * Beam:          36.66 ft (11.17 m) * Draft: 8.75 ft (2.67 m) * Installed power: 5,800 hp (4,300 kW) * Propulsion:   * 2 x GM EMP 16-645E7 (Turbo) Main Diesel Engines * 2× GM EMP 8-268A Auxiliary Diesel Engines with 200 kW Generator * 1× GM EMP 3-268A Auxiliary Diesel Engine with 100 kW Generator * 2× shafts * Speed: 21 knots (39 km/h) maximum * Range:      10,800 nmi (20,000 km) at 12 knots (22 km/h) * Complement: 165 * Sensors and processing systems: * Raytheon AN/SPS-64(V)11 * Raytheon SPS-5 G/H-band Surface Search Radar * RCA/GE Mk26 I-band Navigation Radar * AN/SQS-17B Hull mounted Sonar * Mk52 GFCS with Mk41 Rangefinder for 3-inch (76 mm) guns * 3 Mk51 GFCS for 40 mm guns * Armament: * 3× 3"/50 caliber gun Mk22 dual purpose guns * 3× Mk1 Mod2 Twin 60 caliber Bofors 40 mm gun * 6× Mk10 70 caliber Oerlikon 20 mm cannon * 4× 50 caliber 12.7 mm machine guns ( Destroyer Operators : Philippines, USA and Japan)

The Philippine Navy is sending its biggest warship BRP Rajah Humabon for patrol operations around Scarborough Shoal in the West Philippine Sea.

The deployment of the Humabon came after China dispatched its largest maritime patrol ship into the area in a move likely to raise tensions with neighbors staking rival claims to waters believed to hold vast reserves of oil and gas.

Chinese state media reports yesterday said the Haixun-31 left Wednesday and will stay in Singapore for two weeks of exchanges on search and rescue, anti-piracy and port management operations.

The ship is passing the Paracel and Spratly island groups at the heart of disputes with Vietnam, the Philippines and other nation claimants around the region.

The Chinese media reports appeared to stress the deployment of its biggest patrol ship in the region.

“Our country’s biggest maritime patrol ship patrols the South China Sea,” said the headline in the official Beijing Daily.

Such type of ships has been accused of harassing foreign shipping in the South China Sea, including a US Navy surveillance vessel.

China, Vietnam and the Philippines have traded diplomatic barbs recently over maritime claims to the resource-rich island groups. Vietnam’s navy conducted live fire exercises on Monday after accusing Chinese boats of disrupting oil and gas exploration in its waters.

Philippine Navy chief Vice Admiral Alexander Pama gave assurance that no provocative actions would be made in the West Philippine Sea.

He said the Navy would implement pro-active defense measures all within its territorial waters in the area.

The Humabon, which has 68 crewmembers and eight officers, was docked Thursday at the Poro Point seaport here before sailing to the Scarborough Shoal.

“We will observe and check if there are security threats in the area and also to inspect if there are illegal poachers taking advantage in our jurisdiction,” said the ship’s commanding officer, Cmdr. Celestino Abalayan.

Abalayan was quick to clarify that their mission has nothing to do with the issue on the Spratlys. He said they were just on routine patrol.

Scarborough Shoal is situated in the West Philippine Sea, 198 kilometers west of Subic Bay with an estimated area of 150 square kilometers. The Shoal, which is rich in maritime resources, is also being claimed by China.

Pama also said the Navy, along with other military units committed to secure the country’s territorial waters in Palawan, will maintain its presence within the Kalayaan Island Group, part of the island group of the Spratlys occupied by the Philippines.

“We will strictly adhere to our rules of engagement and if a shooting war breaks out (among contending forces in the Spratlys) in the area, it will not start or come from us first,” Pama said.

Pama though stressed the mandate of the troops to stand down against possible armed hostilities.

“We are not to going start (the shooting) but it is also within our right to defend ourselves. We could not just scamper away or simply watch them (foreign forces) shooting at us,” Pama said.

Pama brushed aside suggestions that the Philippine Navy should also take an aggressive stance and take the cue from Vietnam conducting live fire exercises in the region.

“We are doing our own. We have our own strategy. We have our own (military) plan,” Pama said but declined to elaborate.

The Philippine Navy has taken the aggressive measure of dismantling the markers presumably placed by China on some of the islands and reefs that are within the country’s territorial waters in the West Philippine Sea.

Pama said removal of the markers would continue with the assistance of the Philippine Coast Guard.

“We are doing these operations if only to emphasize that these markers are within the country’s exclusive economic zone,” Pama said.

 

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Australia will Support the Philippines Spratlys - with America

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) guaranteed 200 Nautical Mile Economic Zone for the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia. UNCLOS did not show any China’s territory in the West Philippines Sea’s Spratlys. China’s limit is only until Paracel islands adjacent to their waters.  The Philippines recorded already 6 invasions by china to the West Philippine Sea as of June 16, 2011.

Australia on Thursday (16th June 2011) expressed their support to the Philippines' call for a peaceful resolution on the issue concerning the Spratly Islands in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea).

Australia, which has various oil and gas exploration projects in the Philippines, said at a bilateral meeting between the two countries that it calls for a peaceful resolution of the dispute in the reputedly oil-rich islands. The two-day meeting in Canberra concluded Thursday.

“Ministers and secretaries reaffirmed the view of both countries that territorial disputes should be settled peacefully and in a manner consistent with [the] international law," according to a joint statement, a copy of which was secured by GMA News Online.

The Philippines has recently accused China of intrusion into its territory near Palawan province.

Value and obey the UNCLOS

Australia said those involved in the territorial dispute — Brunei, China, Malaysia, Philippines, and Taiwan — should adhere to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which codifies the international law of the sea.

Officials of the Philippines and Australia also engaged in extensive and detailed discussions on strategic issues such as maritime security at the West Philippine Sea.

Australia’s expression of support came less than a week after Washington expressed its support to Manila over the same issue.

Rules-based, cooperative approaches

Manila, which earlier accused Beijing of violating an agreement aimed at preventing tensions in the region, challenged other claimants over the potentially oil-rich region to adhere to UNCLOS to prevent armed conflict and ensure freedom of navigation.

The Philippines and Australia are one in supporting “rules-based, cooperative approaches" in addressing conflicts at the Spratlys Islands, according to the joint statement.

Philippine officials said it has recorded at least six Chinese incursions in Philippine-claimed areas in the Spratlys Islands. The Philippine military has discovered the installation of Chinese posts in Amy Douglas Reef, which it said was well within the country’s 200 Nautical Mile Exclusive Economic Zone.

 

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Philippines'Navy and Coast Guard remove Chinese markers in Spratlys

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) guaranteed 200 Nautical Mile Economic Zone for the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia. UNCLOS did not show any China’s territory in the West Philippines Sea’s Spratlys. China’s limit is only until Paracel islands.  The Philippines recorded already 6 invasions by china to the West Philippine Sea as of June 16, 2011.

The UNCLOS 200 Nautical Miles Exclusive Economic Zone guaranteed to the Philippines and other claimants in the islands near Spratlys

Distance of the Spratlys Islands to the Philippines’ shore

·        Amy Douglas Bank – 231 KM or 124.73 Nautical Miles from Palawan Province, Philippines

·        Recto Bank (Formerly Reed bank) – 157 KM or 84.77 Nautical Miles

·        Mischief Shoal -  250 KM 0r 134.99 Nautical Miles

The Philippine Navy and the Philippine Coast Guard have removed wooden markers and plastic buoys left by Chinese authorities on three reefs located between southwestern Philippines and the chain of eight islands claimed by the Philippines in the disputed Spratly Archipelago off the South China Sea, recently renamed in the country as the West Philippine Sea.

The markers were taken out as soon as Philippine authorities found them near the Amy Douglas Bank, 231km from Palawan, southwest Philippines, said a report.

Another marker was plucked out near Recto Bank, formerly known as Reed Bank, 157km from Palawan. A buoy was lifted from the sea near Boxall Reef, also located within Philippine territory.

China's erection of poles and a buoy near the Amy Douglas Bank are serious threats or proof that Beijing has "aggressively violated" the Declaration of the Code of Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) that China and the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) signed in 2002, Philippine authorities said in a complaint against China.

Ian Storey of Singapore's Institute of Southeast Asian Studies called China's moves ‘aggressive ... not just assertive.'

Following complaints by the Philippines, China said it left materials on the contested area for research and not for a takeover of the reefs and atolls in the Spratly Archipelago.

Structures

Meanwhile, Philippine authorities have not yet acted radically on the structures that China reportedly built on a total of six reefs within Philippine territories, a political analyst said.

In 1995, Philippine authorities found structures that China had built on Mischief Shoal, 250km from Palawan.

The incident resulted in the signing of the code of conduct for claimants in the contested sea lane and the Spratly Archipelago between China and Asean in 2002.

Reacting to China's reported move of this kind, Euan Graham, senior fellow in the Military Studies Programme of Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said, "If there is new building on a previously unoccupied feature, that would be a fairly clear breach of the DOC."

 

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