From the Philippine News Agency (Jul 15):
PHL blasts China for WPS comments
The Philippines on Monday
blasted China’s Foreign
Ministry for saying that Manila is spreading
“misleading” and “incorrect” information on the status of its territorial
disputes with Beijing in the resource-rich West Philippine Sea.
Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez branded as “baseless” the comments
of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, which said last week that “the Philippines’
claim that it had exhausted almost all political and diplomatic avenues for a
peaceful settlement of dispute is completely not true.”
The latest exchange of diplomatic barbs between China
and the Philippines is the
latest manifestation of long standing territorial feud between Asian superpower
China and the Philippines over West Philippine Sea territories
that have reignited in recent years by tense confrontations between Chinese and
Philippine vessels in two disputed shoals – Scarborough and Ayungin – off Manila’s western coasts.
Hernandez said since August 1995, the two Asian nations have been exchanging
views on the disputes in attempts to achieve a negotiated solution.
“However, despite more than 17 years of consultations, no progress has been
made,” he said, adding the two sides have had nearly 50 consultations when a
standoff in the Scarborough Shoal, or locally known as Bajo de Masinloc,
erupted between the
Philippines
and
China
in April last year.
Subsequent plans to meet, he said, were further overtaken by continuing
intrusions by
China in
Philippine waters since April 2012, particularly in the Scarborough Shoal,
which
Manila says is within its territory but is
being claimed by
China even
it is far from its nearest landmass of
Hainan
province.
“In all of these dialogues,
China
has consistently maintained its hard line position of “indisputable sovereignty”
over the South China Sea, including the
West Philippine
Sea, based on historical facts,” Hernandez said.
Hernandez said
China’s
unequivocal message is: “Tanggapin ninyo na amin ang buong
South
China Sea bago tayo mag-usap. (Acknowledge that the entire
South China is ours before we talk.).”
“It has, therefore, become impossible to continue bilateral discussions on
disputes in the West Philippine Sea with
China on the basis of this rigid
position. This led us to finally resort to arbitration under Annex VII of the
UNCLOS,” Hernandez said.
UNCLOS stands for United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a 1982
accord by 163 countries that aims to govern the use of offshore areas and sets
territorial limits of coastal states.
The
Philippines and
China are both
signatories to the treaty, which also allows member-states to seek legal remedy
on territorial disputes through mediation.
Despite the risks of standing up to
China,
the
Philippines sought
arbitration under the UNCLOS last January to question the legality of
Beijing’s sweeping claims in the
South
China Sea.
China has dismissed the
Philippine action, which got the backing of several Asian and Western nations
like
Japan, the
United States
and European Union.
Other Asian nations including those with territorial disputes with
China have not been as aggressive to protect
their trade relations with
Beijing and avoid
incurring
China’s
ire.
The
Philippines is locked
in a long-running dispute with
China
over the South China Sea or also known as
West Philippine
Sea.
Vietnam,
Malaysia,
Brunei
and
Taiwan
also have overlapping claims over the waters where undersea gas deposits have
been discovered in several areas.
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying claimed the
Philippines “is keen on attacking
China in international
settings while unilaterally shutting the door for negotiation and
consultation.”
“Such practice is anything but helpful to solve the issue.
China urges the
Philippine side to change its wrong course, stop misleading public opinion and
come back to the right track of solving the dispute through bilateral
negotiation and consultation,” Hua said.
Hernandez belied Hua’s accusations, saying “we had all along been indicating
publicly our three-track approach of diplomatic, political, and legal tracks,
including arbitration.”
“Prior to our filing of the arbitration case, in contradiction with China’s
declaration in the ASEAN meetings in Brunei that we did not signal a possible
Philippine arbitration track, we did invite China to join us in bringing the
issue to a dispute settlement mechanism to resolve the issue on a long-term
basis,” Hernandez said.
“This was officially communicated through a note verbale dated April 26,
2012. In its official response to our note verbale,
China
stated that our proposal was a ‘none ground’ issue and it urged the
Philippines ‘to refrain from any infringement on
China’s
territorial sovereignty.’”
On various occasions, Hernandez said the
Philippines
verbally invited
China
to join them before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to
determine which among the two states have sovereign rights over the Scarborough
Shoal.
“In fact, during the very first official visit of Secretary Albert del
Rosario to
China
in July 2011, he proposed to Chinese top leaders to jointly bring this issue to
ITLOS for adjudication. During the visit, Secretary Del Rosario met at length
with Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi who subsequently brought the Secretary to
meet with then Vice President Xi Jinping,” Hernandez explained.
He also said Del Rosario thrice relayed during his visits to
Beijing the invitation for the Chinese Foreign Minister to
visit
Manila
for consultations.
“Up to now, we are awaiting a favorable response to our renewed
invitations,” Hernandez said.
Meanwhile, he said the
Philippines
“remains steadfast in peacefully resolving the
West
Philippine Sea dispute before the Arbitral Tribunal, which is now
in place.”
Hernandez maintained the
Philippines
adheres to the agreement reached between the leaders of the
Philippines and
China in 2011 “not to let the
maritime disputes affect the broader picture of friendship and cooperation
between the two countries.”
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=0&sid=&nid=0&rid=544382
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