DFA hits Chinese decision to deploy armed coast guard vessels in the WPS

From the Philippine News Agency (Jul 25): DFA hits Chinese decision to deploy armed coast guard vessels in the WPS

The Philippines on Thursday denounced China’s decision to deploy armed coast guard vessels to patrol the South China Sea, where the Philippines and other Asian nations have overlapping claims, saying such move “raises the level of tension in the area.”

China unveiled on Monday its unified Coast Guard which integrates the functions of four bodies responsible for surveillance, fisheries administration, law enforcement and border control, noting divisions “that were not allowed to be equipped with weapons can be armed now."

“Such activity is inconsistent with the spirit of the declaration of the conduct of parties in the South China Sea,” Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez, referring to a non-binding code of conduct among claimants, told a news conference.

China’s new coast guard vessel has been sighted recently in the Panganiban Reef near Palawan province, news reports said.

There were also sightings of China’s new vessels near Japan’s territorial waters around the East China Sea islands, where the two nations are locked in a long-running territorial rift.

Hernandez said the Department of Foreign Affairs is verifying the reported presence of the Chinese coast guard vessel in Panganiban Reef, a rich fishing ground within Manila’s territory but came under China’s control in 1995.

The presence of such vessel in Panganiban, if confirmed, is “inconsistent with the efforts by Association of South East Asian Nations to build confidence among the parties as it raises the level of tension in that area,” Hernandez said.

The Philippines, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have competing claims over the South China Sea, now called West Philippine Sea by Manila.

China claims “indisputable sovereignty” over the entire waters, where undersea gas deposits have been discovered in several areas, even as it overlaps with the territories of its Asian neighbors.

Manila has sought international arbitration to try to declare as illegal China’s massive claim.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=&sid=&nid=&rid=548035