MANILA – President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. expressed concern on Wednesday regarding the reported presence of Chinese warships and a helicopter near Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough Shoal), describing it as “worrisome.” However, he affirmed that the Philippines remains committed to defending its maritime territory.
During a spontaneous interview before departing for Australia, Marcos remarked that the situation in the contested waters has shifted due to the presence of China’s navy.
“It’s worrisome because there are two elements to that. One, before it was just the Chinese coast guard moving in our area; now, it is the navy with the fishing boats. So the situation is changing,” Marcos told reporters.
“We just watch, of course, what everybody is doing, but really for us… we [will] just defend our maritime territory. We continue to support all of our fishermen… who make their living from these fishing grounds,” he added.
In 2016, an international court in The Hague ruled that the Philippines has fishing rights in the Bajo de Masinloc or Scarborough Shoal. However, China has persistently disregarded this decision.
Meanwhile, the Philippine ambassador to the United States pointed out that the true potential conflict zone in the region might lie in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), rather than the Taiwan Strait. He noted that incidents in the WPS sometimes caused the President to lose sleep, emphasizing the volatility and importance of the area.
“You know, whenever there’s something that happens [in the West Philippine Sea], it concerns him,” said Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez. “And he said it publicly that it keeps him awake at night whenever there’s any skirmish that happens in the West Philippine Sea.”
Romualdez made the remark on Wednesday during the general meeting of the Consular Corps of the Philippines.
“My opinion is, the real problem and the real flashpoint is in the West Philippine Sea,” Romualdez said.
In a subsequent interview, he remarked that China’s approach towards Taiwan appears to be more deliberate and strategic.
He suggested that Beijing would refrain from taking aggressive action against Taiwan due to the readiness of the Taiwanese people to defend themselves.
“In my view — and I agree with many assessments made by people in Washington — [Chinese President] Xi [Jinping] is not going to make that move unless he is absolutely sure that he will not [meet] the resistance that [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin is now facing in Ukraine,” Romualdez said.
He said just one major accident as a result of the skirmishes in the WPS could lead the country to invoke the Mutual Defense Treaty with the United States, then “all hell breaks loose.”
“We want to avoid having to find a situation where we will have to call each other saying, ‘We want to invoke the Mutual Defense Treaty. You have to defend us because the Chinese are already on our shores,'” he said.
On Tuesday, Commodore Jay Tarriela, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea, disclosed that during the latest mission of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), three People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy warships were observed near Bajo de Masinloc.
However, Tarriela clarified that these warships kept a distance of more than 20 nautical miles from Bajo de Masinloc.
“It is important for us to note that within… the 12 nautical miles, we have territorial sovereignty over these waters,” Tarriela said during a press briefing. “So these Chinese warships have always maintained that they are outside the 12 nautical miles.”
Additionally, the BFAR vessel also reported sighting a Chinese Navy helicopter flying over the waters of Bajo de Masinloc.
“This is the first time that we have sighted this kind of aircraft in the area,” said Tarriela.
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