DFA : Chinese vessels go in and out of Bajo de Masinloc

From the Philippine News Agency (Jul 8): DFA : Chinese vessels go in and out of Bajo de Masinloc

Two Chinese vessels have been spotted again in the Manila-claimed Scarborough Shoal off northwestern Philippines, days after it was reported that the ships have left the area, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Monday.

“Yesterday, we received a report from the Philippine Navy confirming that Chinese ships are back in Bajo de Masinloc,” Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said, referring the shoal’s Philippine name.

Chinese vessels, he added, have never actually left the area as they have been sighted to have been coming in and out of the shoal, where the two Asian nations figure in a dangerous standoff last year.

“They have been intruding in that area for some time now and those reports of Chinese ships leaving and coming back have been a normal report,” Hernandez told a press briefing.

Apart from their presence in the shoal, China, in another bold assertion over the area, has also roped off Scarborough and prevented Filipino fishermen access and shelter to its vast lagoon.

Beijing has opposed Philippine efforts to assert sovereignty in areas in the South China Sea or West Philippine Sea where China has claimed "indisputable sovereignty.”

China virtually claims the entire waters, where undersea gas deposits have been discovered in several areas.

The Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan also have overlapping claims to the South China Sea.

Hernandez maintained that Scarborough is “an integral part of the Philippine territory.”

A standoff erupted between the Philippines and China at the shoal in April 2012 when Manila sent a warship to arrest Chinese poachers at the shoal.

The standoff temporarily ended when the Philippines pulled out its two government vessels guarding the shoal two months later due to bad weather, but Chinese ships have remained in the area.

Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario last week slammed China’s increasing militarization of the South China Sea, calling the massive presence of Beijing’s military and paramilitary ships in Philippine-claimed territories of Scarborough Shoal and recently around Ayungin Shoal near the Palawan as “threats” to the region’s peace and stability.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=542100