By TESSA JAMANDRE
A YEAR after he swore allegiance to the flag after being granted amnesty for joining the Oakwood mutiny in 2003, former Marine Capt. Nicanor Faeldon is back. On Friday, he will lead an armada of fishermen to make a stand in the Scarborough Shoal where a tense standoff between Chinese maritime ships and the Philippine Coast Guard continues.
Text by LLOYD REYES
Photos by VINCENT GO
THE tension between the Philippines and China continues to simmer as more than a hundred protesters gathered in front of the Chinese Consulate General in Makati Friday to denounce what they called as “China’s continued bullying of the Philippines” over conflicting ownership claims of the Scarborough Shoal also known as Panatag shoal.
By TESSA JAMANDRE
AN aggressive overflight reconnaissance over Philippine-claimed isles in the oil-rich Spratlys group of islands in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) had been monitored and reported to the Philippine military shortly after Foreign Secretary Albert Del Rosario returned from his visit to Beijing.
By ELLEN TORDESILLAS
HARDLINERS in the Chinese Military Academy are raring to teach China’s neighbors “a lesson” for intruding into the South China Sea, which they consider part of their national territory, a Chinese Southeast Asian expert said.
By ELLEN TORDESILLAS
IN case there’s a shooting war in the disputed islands of the Spratlys, don’t expect the United States military to come to the aid of the Philippines, South China Sea experts said.
AMID renewed tensions in the disputed South China Sea, the Philippine military is batting to revive the concept of an anti-communist collective defense of Southeast Asia to enable the country to enter into a leasing arrangement of patrol boats with the United States.
By TESSA JAMANDRE
“This is Chinese Warship 560. You are in the China territory. Leave the area immediately.”
Upon hearing this warning through a marine band radio, three Philippine boats fishing in Quirino, or Jackson atoll, a Philippine-claimed islet off Palawan in the disputed Spratly Islands, scampered away.
But the Chinese warship still fired three shots at the vessels.
By TESSA JAMANDRE
CHINA has accused the Philippines of “invading” the South China Sea which it claims as wholly its own, the first time it has ever done so.
“Since 1970’s, the Republic of the Philippines started to invade and occupy some islands and reefs of China’s Nansha Islands and made relevant territorial claims, to which China objects strongly,” China said in a note verbale submitted April 14 to the United Nations in reply to the protest lodged by the Philippines on April 5.
THE Philippines has lodged a diplomatic protest against China’s 9-dash line territorial claim over the whole of South China Sea, a month before President Aquino’s planned state visit to Beijing.
By ELLEN TORDESILLAS
ONE hundred twelve years after the Philippines declared itself an independent state, questions on the width and breadth of Philippine territory are still a subject of intense debate. The latest book of distinguished diplomat Rodolfo C. Severino, Where in the world is the Philippines?, tackles this issue comprehensively.
