China hungry for oil in disputed waters - Spratlys of the West Philippines Sea

Indonesia – China’s aggressive actions in the South China Sea and West Philippine Sea appear to be motivated by a hunger to exploit the area’s rich oil and gas resources, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said yesterday (July 23, 2011).

Speaking on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum here, Del Rosario also said China’s behavior in the disputed waters raised concerns about how it would treat its neighbors as it became more powerful.

“I think the wealth of the area in terms of hydrocarbon assets could stimulate an increased interest in the area,” Del Rosario said when asked why China had, according to the Philippines, become more aggressive.

He said the Philippines was looking at the events in Southeast Asia’s disputed waters through a broader window of how China intended to treat other countries as it became more powerful.

“I think there is that concern that China is becoming more powerful,” he said.

“We support their progress and their growth. It is good for the region. But at the same time it is our expectation that their strength and their growth and their influence will be exercised in a responsible way,” he said.

China claims all of the South China Sea, even up to the coast of Southeast Asian countries, as part of its historical territory, on the other hand, The Sultanate of Sulu slams the claim of China as the Spratlys Islands and waters is part of their Ancestral domain with bases dates back from the Mahjapahit and Shrivijaya empires, which extended from Sabah (North Borneo), the Sulu archipelago, Palawan, parts of Mindanao, the islands now known as the Spratlys, Palawan, and up to the Visayas and Manila

Del Rosario said these intrusions occurred within 85 nautical miles of Palawan, but nearly 600 nautical miles from the nearest coast of China.

He insisted China’s claim to all of the sea, based on a Chinese map with nine dashes outlining its territory, would be rejected in an international court.

“We take the position that China’s nine-dash claim to sovereignty over the South China Sea is baseless,” he said.

“If Philippine sovereign rights can be denigrated by this baseless claim, many countries should begin to contemplate the potential threat to freedom of navigation in the South China Sea,” Del Rosario said.

“China’s hesitation to accept the Philippine suggestion to elevate their dispute to ITLOS (International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea) could lead to conclusion that China may not be able to validate their stated positions in accordance with the UNCLOS,” he said. UNCLOS refers to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Del Rosario proposed on June 11 that the Philippines and China elevate the issue to ITLOS.

The DFA chief also praised the ASEAN Regional Forum for its role in keeping stability and strengthening cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region since 1994.

“With the focus being on non-traditional security issues, we have managed to expand the opportunities for dialogue and cooperation in the four priority areas, namely: disaster relief, counter-terrorism and transnational crime, non-proliferation and disarmament, and maritime security,” he said.

He cited the expansion of the East Asia Summit (EAS) – to include Russia and the US – as well as the launching of the ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting-Plus as two significant developments in the past year.

“The Philippines recognizes the importance of forging closer cooperation and harmonizing these regional mechanisms to ensure coordination in addressing security issues in the Asia-Pacific region,” Del Rosario said. 

US concern over the Spratlys conflict

Also in the forum, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that a recent surge in tensions threatened regional peace, while warning against force to solve the dispute.

“The United States is concerned that recent incidents in the South China Sea threaten the peace and stability on which the remarkable progress of the Asia Pacific region has been built,” Clinton said in prepared remarks to foreign ministers.

“These incidents endanger the safety of life at sea, escalate tensions, undermine freedom of navigation, and pose risks to lawful unimpeded commerce and economic development,” she said.

“Each of the parties should comply with their commitments to respect freedom of navigation and over-flight in the South China Sea in accordance with international law, to resolve their disputes through peaceful means, without resorting to the threat or use of force,” she said.

China claims all of the South China Sea, even up to the coast of Southeast Asian countries, as part of what it considers historical territory.

The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have overlapping claims to all or parts of the sea, which is believed to be extremely rich in oil and gas deposits.

In recent months, the Philippines and Vietnam have accused China of increasingly aggressive behavior in the sea, such as harassing fishermen and oil exploration vessels.

The Philippines has said Chinese forces shot at Filipino fishermen, deployed navy patrol boats to intimidate an oil exploration vessel and placed markers on some of the islets.

The area has long been considered one of Asia’s potential military flashpoints, and in 1998 Vietnam fought a brief naval battle with China on one of the reefs that left 50 Vietnamese sailors dead.

Vietnam said that, in one incident, Chinese sailors boarded a Vietnamese fishing boat and beat its captain before stealing the crew’s catch.

China has responded to the accusations by insisting it wants to resolve the dispute peacefully, but firmly maintaining all of the South China Sea is its sovereign territory.

At a meeting with the 10 members of the ASEAN on Wednesday in Bali, China agreed to a set of guidelines setting a framework for an eventual code of conduct for the South China Sea.

China and some ASEAN members hailed this as a breakthrough that would defuse the tensions, however, the Philippines maintained that the Chinese side had not made enough concessions and the guidelines lacked teeth.

Clinton praised the guidelines as an “important first step,” but called on all parties to work more quickly towards achieving a final diplomatic solution.

“The United States encourages all parties to accelerate efforts to reach a full code of conduct in the South China Sea,” Clinton said.

In comments likely to further irk China, Clinton also emphasized the US had a “national interest” in keeping the sea’s vital shipping lanes open for international trade and navigation.

Taiwan refuses to recognize ASEAN-China pact on Spratlys

Taipei - Taiwan on Friday (July 22, 2011) said it refused to recognize a pact reached between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China on the Spratlys islands dispute two days earlier.

The Foreign Ministry said that the Republic of China (Taiwan) government will not recognize any resolution on the Spratlys reached without its participation.

On Wednesday, ASEAN and China agreed on a so-called Declaration of Conduct setting up guidelines for international cooperation in disputed parts of the South China Sea.

The Taiwan Foreign Ministry said that whether looked at from the perspective of history, geography or international law, the Spratlys as well as their surrounding waters, seabeds and subsoil, belong to the Republic of China (Taiwan).

Taiwan upholds the basic principles of 'safeguarding sovereignty, shelving disputes, promoting peace and reciprocity, and encouraging joint exploration,' the ministry said. It is willing to work with other relevant parties in the region to find resolutions to disputes.

The Spratlys are claimed wholly or in part by Vietnam, Taiwan, China, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei, and all but Brunei have a military presence on one or more of the otherwise uninhabited atolls. The islands are believed to contain substantial offshore petroleum reserves.

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Philippines waving new Philippines' Flag in the Spratlys - West Philippines Sea

A delegation of five Philippines Lawmakers landed on a disputed island in the Spratly chain on Wednesday in a melodramatic assertion of the Philippine claim to what it calls “Pagasa” island, despite warnings from China that the trip would destabilize the region and harm relations between Beijing and Manila.

To heighten tensions arising from contending claims by China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan on parts, if not all, of the Spratlys, in the sea, also called by the Philippines as West Philippine Sea, the delegation arrived on Thitu island, the largest of the Philippine-occupied islands and raised two Philippine flags at a municipal government building, declaring the island “Philippine territory,” and vowing that Filipinos were “ready to defend the territory.”

But while Akbayan Rep. Walden F. Bello declared that the delegation came on a historic mission “to promote a peaceful solution” to the territorial dispute, he spoke with belligerent words, saying that although “we support a diplomatic solution … let there be no doubt in anybody’s mind, in any foreign power’s mind, that if they dare to eject us from Pagasa … Filipinos will not take that sitting down. Filipinos are willing to die for their soil.”

He spoke to about 80 Filipinos who live on Thitu, which covers in area of about seven hectares and lies about 450 kilometers northwest of Palawan. His audience included 60 Filipino residents, as well as soldiers, police, Coast Guard personnel and government employees.

Who authorized congressmen to proclaim or reiterate Philippine sovereignty on behalf of the government is a matter of conjecture, but it is clear the congressmen visited the Spratlys on their own initiative.

While no one can stop them from playing patriots, in the Philippine constitutional scheme of things, it is fairly established that foreign policy initiatives and their implementation come from the executive department, not from the legislative department.

Whether or not the congressmen cleared their visit to the Spratlys with President Aquino or whether the administration was informed about it beforehand is subject to speculation, but the government is washing its hands regarding the trip. What’s undeniable is that the trip dragged the government into an issue with China.

Beijing didn’t take the visit lightly. The Chinese Embassy in Manila criticized the trip, saying, “It serves no purpose but to undermine peace and stability in the region and sabotage the China-Philippines relationship.”

On China’s objection to the visit, Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda made an ambiguous statement.

He said, “My understanding is that they visited our own territory, so they are not doing anything in violation of international law.”

He invoked the provision on a 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

“This was a move on the part of the legislators, on their own initiative, to go and visit the Spratlys,” he said.

“The Department of Foreign Affairs is in constant discussion with the Chinese Embassy and as much as we recognize concerns over this, we hope that it will not hamper relations between China and the Philippines.”

Lacierda reiterated the DFA’s position that the Chinese complaint has “no basis.”

Philippine officials tried to explain to Chinese Embassy officials that under the Philippine constitutional system, Congress is co-equal with the executive department, hence congressmen were free to decide to visit and to see for themselves conditions in those territories claimed by the Philippines.

This explanation may not be of much help to the Chinese whose system has a highly centralized structure in policy decision-making.

Over the past few months, there have been a series of incidents involving encounters between Chinese patrols and Philippine vessels conducting explorations for oil and minerals in the areas claimed by Manila.

Manila has accused Chinese forces of opening fire on Filipino fishermen in the areas claimed by the Philippines as well as putting up structures in disputed areas apparently as a prelude to the construction of more permanent structures.

The congressmen’s visit took place as officials of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations were meeting in Bali, Indonesia, to find diplomatic solutions to the territorial disputes in the South China Sea, which had generated fears that these would escalate into armed conflict.

The maritime dispute has dominated the agenda of the five-day Asean meeting.

Senior Asean officials have agreed on “guidelines for cooperation” in the South China Sea. But diplomats said the agreement was watered down in the search for a compromise.

While the guidelines were hailed publicly as a “significant step” in resolving the disputes, diplomats were reported to have played down their significance, saying they lack specifics.

Liu Zhenmin, China’s assistant minister of foreign affairs said the officials would submit their draft for approval to their ministers.

The guidelines, which have been under negotiations for nearly 10 years, spell out ways to implement a declaration of claimant on the need for a code of conduct to govern activities in the area.

The ultimate objective is for China and Asean to agree on a legally binding “Regional Code for Conduct in the South China Sea,” but diplomats considered this goal a distant dream.

This brings us to the question: What purpose did the intervention of Philippine congressmen, through their visit to the Spratlys, serve? On the face of it, it was no more than a flag-waving exercise. The Chinese do not respect such hollow gestures.

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2 Chinese Mediamen blacklisted after clash with President's in-law

The 2 Chinese journalists who figured in an squabble with the brother-in-law of President Benigno Aquino III has been ordered blacklisted and are now on their way back to Beijing.

In an interview with ANC, Bureau of Immigration intelligence Chief Maria Antonette Bucasas-Mangrobang said the “commissioner has ordered their immediate departure as well as their inclusion in the bureau’s blacklist.”

The 2 were part of a contingent from China that is on a familiarization trip to Cebu sponsored by the Department of Tourism.

They were onboard a Cebu Pacific flight on Saturday (July 23, 2011) together with Ballsy Aquino-Cruz and husband Eldon.

Passengers had reprimanded the Chinese passengers for being loud. Eldon, who tried to shush them, was later grabbed by his shirt collar.

Despite the row, the Cruz couple decided not to pursue charges.

“The commissioner has the authority on the basis of certain acts of foreigners to order their inclusion in the blacklist,” Bucasas-Mangrobang explained.

2 Chinese Journalist ask Apologies

In a separate interview with ANC, Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim said the 2 had already written an apology to Eldon, which was coursed through formal channels.

Lim said the 2 were immediately brought to the custody of the Chinese embassy. “We also sent our apologies to the couple in behalf of the department.”

Ten other Chinese mediamen were also detained after the incident, but were later allowed to continue with their familiarization trip.

“We’re trying to avoid a national incident…It was just misbehavior on the part of the Chinese nationals,” he said.

He said they were too “overenthusiastic,” not knowing that they were already disturbing some of the passengers.

Palace officials also readily dismissed insinuations that the incident had something to do with the country’s tiff with China over several diplomatic issues.

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