From the Business Mirror (Aug 11, 2020): Navy chief: It’s WESCOM’s call to send ships to Reed Bank (By Rene Acosta)
The chief of the Philippine Navy (PN) said on Tuesday he is leaving it up to the military’s highest commander who has jurisdiction over Palawan and its adjoining islands to decide whether he should send ships to check, or drive away, Chinese vessels carrying out “unauthorized” research in the Reed Bank, which falls under the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
The reported oil-rich Reed Bank falls within the area of operations of the Armed Forces Western Command (WESCOM), one of the six area commands of the military that reports directly to the chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
“That is the operational commander’s call. But you have to base it on the availability of vessels, on current, the current disposition of vessels or aircraft and their present mission also,” said PN Flag Officer in Command Vice Admiral Giovanni Carlo Bacordo.
On Monday, Bacordo told foreign journalists that two Chinese research ships were at the Reed Bank, or locally called as Recto Bank, undertaking what they believed was research-related activities without permission from the Philippine government.
Since the Reed Bank falls within the country’s 200 nautical miles EEZ affirmed by the UN Arbitral Tribunal in its 2006 ruling over the maritime case filed by Manila against Beijing, any foreign undertaking within that territory should bear government approval.
“We have checked if they have any clearance to conduct survey in that area, and we found out that there is none,” Bacordo said, adding the vessels were moving at the speed of three knots, which are almost stationary movements.
“You are only doing that if you are conducting actual surveys,” he said without officially identifying the two Chinese research ships.
Since Bacordo’s timeline was two weeks, then the research ships were in the country’s EEZ and have been doing their research activities when President Duterte made his State of the Nation Address where he admitted he could not do anything against China and its activities in the West Philippine Sea.
Various reports, including from the US military identified one of the research vessels as Xiang Yang Hong 14, which left Guangzhou, China on July 22 and was spotted at the Reed Bank since August 6.
However, Bacordo said he was not certain whether the vessels were still in the area since he disclosed their presence on Monday, his basis of which was a military report dated August 9.
“Right now, I have not read an update,” he said, adding the ships’ presence were alternate. “It seems one of the ships would leave and the other would take over.”
The presence of the ships in the area was monitored by the military’s littoral monitoring stations.
Still, Bacordo doused off fears that China’s latest intrusion into the country’s maritime waters could lead into a shooting war, saying the military would not be swayed into such as scenario, which is a very “unpopular move.”
“You are provoked to take drastic actions,” the Navy chief said, adding this may have been the strategy of China as he cited past instances wherein Chinese military and paramilitary ships harassed Filipino fishermen and even military resupplies in the West Philippine Sea.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.