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By ELLEN T. TORDESILLAS IN the power point presentation Rep. Ashley Acedillo of the Magdalo Party showed last Wednesday, he compared the massive fortification and expansion of the Chinese of their occupied reefs in the disputed Spratlys area in the South China with the miserable state of the islands and reefs occupied by the Philippines.
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 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 DOES Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario have a problem with the case filed with the United Nations Arbitral Court against China’s nine-dash line map that prompted him to commission Social Weather Stations to do a survey which focused on the case and the problem with China in the West Philippine Sea? SWS
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 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
By ELLEN TORDESILLAS THE decision of U.S President Barack Obama to get the approval of Congress before he orders a missile attack on Syria should shatter the illusion of those who believe that America will immediately come to the rescue of the Philippines in the unlikely event of an armed conflict between the Philippines
IN Bangkok last week, the commander of the United States Pacific Command, Admiral Samuel Locklear, said the usual line that their Asian allies expect from visiting American officials: we will oppose China’s expansionism. “We will oppose the change of status quo by force of anyone,” Locklear said referring to the situation in South China Sea
By VERA Files A crew member of a Taiwanese trawler was killed Thursday morning after being fired upon by a Philippine Navy ship in the disputed area of the South China Sea, media reports in Taipei and Beijing said. The online Taiwan News said the incident took place at 10 a.m. “about halfway between the
