PHL protests China's shooing away of 2 boats on Ayungin Shoal

From InterAksyon (mar 11): PHL protests China's shooing away of 2 boats on Ayungin Shoal

Acting on a report by its military, the Philippine government has protested China’s recent act of shooing away Philippine boats on Ayungin Shoal, calling Beijing's acts a "clear and urgent threat" to the country's rights.

"Ayungin Shoal is part of the continental shelf of the Philippines and therefore the Philippines is entitled to exercise sovereignty rights and jurisdiction in the area without the permission of other States. Furthermore, the civilian vessels contracted by the Philippine Navy were only conducting rotation of personnel and resupply operations," said a statement issued Tuesday (March 11) by the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The DFA said China’s actions "constitute a clear and urgent threat to the rights and interests of the Philippines under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)."

he DFA summoned the Chinese Charge d’Affaires Tuesday afternoon to a note verbale to express the government’s objection to China’s actions and urged China "to desist from any further interference with the efforts of the Philippines to undertake rotation and resupply operations at the Ayungin Shoal."

China said on Monday that its coast guard ships had driven away two Filipino vessels that tried to approach a shoal in the South China Sea, which Manila calls the West Philippine Sea, in the latest flare-up of a long-running territorial dispute, said an earlier Reuters report.

The Chinese ships were patrolling waters around Second Thomas Shoal, known in China as the Ren'ai reef, when they spotted the boats, carrying construction materials and Philippine flags, which left the area after being warned off, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said. The incident happened on Sunday, he added.

Qin said that China had repeatedly demanded the Philippines remove a ship that had been grounded on the shoal in 1999, but that Manila had cited technical reasons for being unable to do so.

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/82472/phl-protests-chinas-shooing-away-of-2-boats-on-ayungin-shoal