Archive - South China Sea

The commander of United States Pacific Fleet said it is the stand of the United States that international law allows them to conduct military activities in the 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zones of other countries. Admiral Scott Harbison Swift , who was in the country last week as part of his familiarization tour having

  By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS THE Republic of China (ROC) or Taiwan has its issue with mainland China (PROC-People’s Republic of China) but in matters of ownership of almost the whole of South China Sea, they have the same line. In the statement released by Taiwan Tuesday, it asserted that Nansha islands also known as

  By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS and TESSA JAMANDRE Despite the presence of a high-level Philippine team at the hearing of the Philippines’ case against China before the Arbitral Tribunal of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) this week, the issue of who owns the contested islands in the South China

LOOKING at the almost 300- year-old Philippine map by Fr. Pedro Murillo Velarde which businessman Mel Velarde acquired for P12 million in an auction in London last year, one can see that the Jesuit priest is a great storyteller.

  The Philippine government will be submitting to the Permanent Court of Arbitration  in The Hague this week an almost 300-year-old map of the Philippines showing the disputed Scarborough Shoal being part of Philippine territory as far back as three centuries ago. The map debunks the so-called nine-dash-line China has been using as proof of

By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS LONG before China built lighthouses in reefs they are occupying in the disputed Spratlys, the Philippine government under President Fidel Ramos had planned to build lighthouses in Reed Bank and two other reefs but inter-government wrangling over money stalled the project until it was overtaken by events. Last Tuesday, China announced

Fiery Cross before and during the reclamation By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS THE standard press statement of Malacañang and foreign affairs officials prior to the President’s attendance in the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is for the Philippines to push for the adoption of the Code of Conduct in the South China

 By TESSA JAMANDRE and ELLEN TORDESILLAS THE Philippines and Vietnam have agreed to conduct joint naval drills and scientific studies amid concerns over China’s intensified reclamations in the South China Sea. The planned activities are part of the soon-to-be signed “Joint Statement on the Establishment of a Strategic Partnership between the Republic of the Philippines

By TESSA JAMANDRE CHINA has created new artificial islets in two more reefs in the disputed South China Sea, which the Philippine military fears is meant to choke off its access to Ayungin shoal, where a crumbling Philippine Navy ship is beached. In an interview, former Air Force officer Rep. Francisco Acedillo, now partylist representative

  By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS LAST year, Itu Aba (also known as Taiping or Ligaw), the biggest feature in the Spratly group of islands being disputed by the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan, figured in a controversy involving the appointment of the Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza to the Supreme Court. Supreme Court Justice

  By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS CHINA’S activities in the South China Sea, not surprisingly, figured prominently in the fifth Philippines-United States Bilateral Strategic Dialogue held Tuesday and Wednesday in Manila. The joint statement on the meeting, co-chaired by Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs Evan P. Garcia and Undersecretary of National Defense Pio Lorenzo F. Batino for

  By ELLEN  T. TORDESILLAS The Philippine case against China’s nine-dash line before the United Nations Arbitral Tribunal gained support from Vietnam in a statement it submitted to the court in The Hague on Thursday. The Vietnam Foreign Ministry said the tribunal has jurisdiction to settle disputes concerning the interpretation of the U.N. Convention on

    By HARRY  L. ROQUE  TWO years after the Philippines initiated arbitration proceedings against China under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, China belatedly published in the web site of its Ministry of Foreign Affairs its official Position Paper on the arbitration. The Chinese position was divided into three. First, that

    BY ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS THE Position Paper of China on the case filed by the Philippines with the United Nations Arbitral Tribunal showed the wide gap between the two countries as regards their conflicting claims on th South China Sea islands, reefs and rocks. The meeting between President Aquino and Chinese President Xi

  By ELLEN TORDESILLAS CHINA insisted Sunday that the United Nations Arbitral Tribunal has no jurisdiction on the complaint filed by the Philippines seeking to declare null and void the nine-dash line on China’s maps. China’s 27-page position paper, posted on the website of its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, came eight days before the Dec.

  By  ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS CHINA’s 9-dashed line map, which was recently expanded to 10 dashes, goes against the “concept of global commons” which was the foundation of the 1982 United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea, Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said in a speech delivered on the 75th Anniversary of the

By ELLEN TORDESILLAS STATEMENTS coming from Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario betray helplessness over the situation in the South China Sea. The Philippines is losing the battle that he led the country to wage against China. Last Thursday Del Rosario said that the Philippines will ask the United Nations Arbitral Court to hasten the resolution

By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS USING China’s very own ancient maps, Justice Antonio T. Carpio debunked the Asian superpower’s ownership claims of almost the whole of South China Sea based on “historical facts.” In a lecture at De La Salle University “Historical Facts, Historical Lies and Historical Rights in the West Philippine Sea,” Carpio took up

By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS THE current tension in the South China Sea triggered by China’s territorial assertiveness underscores the military weakness of the Philippines and the lack of direction of its foreign policy as against Vietnam’s focused moves backed up by a credible defense capacity. There are three incidents or conflicts going on in South

By ELLEN TORDESILLAS THE Philippines submitted its Memorial before the Arbitral Tribunal of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in The Hague, Netherlands in the suit it filed to nullify China’s 9-dash line map, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said today. China’s reaction:http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/xwfw/s2510/t1142356.shtml Del Rosario said the 4,000 page Memorial consisting

DESPITE Chinese requests to delay it, the Philippines is filing on March 30 its memorandum challenging before the United Nations China’s territorial claims over the South China Sea. The memorandum, called a Memorial in international law, will be filed with the Arbitral Tribunal of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) at

THE rising tension at the Ayungin shoal, just 21 nautical miles from Mischief Reef where China has built fortifications, could be a test on the usefulness of the 1951 PH-US Mutual Defense Treaty In its statement issued last Friday, the Department of Foreign Affairs said:  “The BRP Sierra Madre, a commissioned Philippine Naval Vessel, was

“There can no longer be any legal dispute that the fully submerged Reed Bank, which is where the rich reserves of gas is located, belongs exclusively to the Philippines, being within 200 nautical miles from Palawan and more than 800 nautical miles from China. The resolution of the legal issue is important for investors,” Carpio said.

A state-owned Chinese oil firm has rejected the proposal of business tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan to invest in a contract to drill in the disputed Reed Bank but welcomed “innovative” proposals on how it can participate, according to a memorandum Pangilinan submitted to President Benigno Aquino.

By TESSA JAMANDRE FOUR members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with claims in the South China Sea failed to take a united stand on China’s growing aggressiveness after Brunei opted out of a recently held meeting in Manila. Brunei was a no-show in the 1st ASEAN Claimants Working Group Meeting held at

By TESSA JAMANDRE CHINA is sending a new ambassador to Manila at a time of strained Philippine-Chinese relations, with the Philippines preparing to step up its territorial claims against China before the international arbitral tribunal. Ambassador Zhao Jinhua, a 48-year-old diplomat who carved his career from the Asian Affairs Department of China’s Foreign Ministry, is

  By ELLEN TORDESILLAS ALARM  bells rang again with the announcement last week by China that Hainan, its southernmost province, was implementing a Fishery Law that requires foreign fishing boats to get its approval when venturing into the South China Sea starting Jan. 1, 2014. Hainan, with an area of 32,900 square kilometers, is China’s

THE possibility of China pulling out of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea has been mentioned in informal discussions among foreign affairs experts and observers but it was the first time that a Chinese scholar said it in public. Shen Dingli, speaking to reporters after his speech in a forum “What

THE concrete blocks in Bajo de Masinloc, which Philippine defense and military officials last month accused China of putting there, may have actually been placed by the United States Navy decades ago, military sources said. A military investigation found that the concrete slabs were covered by algae, an indication that they had been in the area

By ELLEN TORDESILLAS Concrete blocks or just rocks and corals? That is the latest question troubling the strained relationship between the Philippines and China over the disputed Bajo de Masinloc, also known as Scarborough Shoal, off the South China Sea. This time, though, the dispute is playing out through photographs, more than words. A week