Liaoning, China’s first aircraft carrier, back from a test mission in Hainan.
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 smallest province. Yet the Fishery Law, which China claims to have been adopted in 1993 and amended in 2008, puts under Hainan’s authority two million square kilometers of the vast South China Sea (estimate size is 3.5 million square kilometers), parts of it are also being claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan.
A happy President Aquino and Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario.At the Christmas Party of Metro Pacific Investment Corporation last month at J.W. Marriott Hotel in Hongkong, the company’s chairman, Manuel V. Pangilinan (MVP) made special mention of Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario saying, “he will soon be rejoining us in the private sector.”
MVP’s remark intrigued other guests who asked each other, “Why, is he resigning?”
(Del Rosario’s statement on this article released in Malacañang: “In my talks with my trusted friend Manny Pangilinan, in December, he is fully supportive of my decision to continue in public service for as long as the President wishes for me to do so.”)
Actually, del Rosario had resigned twice in his almost three years as foreign secretary. (He served as ambassador to the United States during the time of Gloria Arroyo.) The first was in June 2012 after the standoff with China at Scarborough Shoal (also known as Bajo de Masinloc or Panatag shoal) which brought into the picture, much to the resentment of del Rosario, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV.
Shen DingliThe 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 is to be done?: Resolving Maritime Disputes in Southeast Asia” organized by the Angara Centre for Law and Economics at Marriott Hotel last Thursday, said it was a mistake for China to have joined the 1982 UNCLOS, “an international treaty that provides a regulatory framework for the use of the world’s seas and oceans to ensure the conservation and equitable usage of resources and the marine environment and to ensure the protection and preservation of the living resources of the sea.”
UNCLOS also addresses such other matters as sovereignty, rights of usage in maritime zones, and navigational rights, the UN website states.
Twenty-seven years in prison, a long period of that in darkness and limited access to sunlight, affected the eyesight of world hero Nelson Mandela.One of his requests when he came to the Philippines on a state visit on March 1, 1997 was to have the lights dim in his hotel room.
His office also specified a room temperature for the almost 80-year old South African leader, whose unrelenting fight against apartheid and boundless capacity to forgive even those who had persecuted him have made him an inspiration and an icon.
I am not sure where he stayed during his Manila visit but usually at that time state visitors stayed at the Manila Hotel.
An inspiring lifeI was then a Malacañang reporter and I felt privileged covering the visit of the distinguished leader. I brought his autobiography, “Long Walk to Freedom” hoping for a chance to have him autograph it. When I did not get the chance to approach him during the press conference, I gave the book to the protocol officer hoping that he would have the opportunity in between the visiting leader’s official activities.
The protocol officer returned the book to me without the much-desired autograph explaining that he was told by Mandela’s aides said that the South African leader has made it a policy not to autograph books and memorabilia.
A 2010 news item in The Guardian carried a request from the Nelson Mandela Foundation that “Because of the sheer volume of requests for his autographs, he no longer signs books, memorabilia, photographs, etc. “
A closer look at the concrete blocks from the air.
Retired Philippine Navy Commodore Rex Robles had very serious doubts about the concrete blocks in Bajo de Masinloc as foundations for structures similar to what the Chinese did in Mischief Reef when he first saw the photos presented by Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin during a budget congressional hearing last Sept. 3.
“Those blocks did not look like the beginnings of underwater build up,” said Robles, who had taken up advanced engineering courses.
Robles’ doubts have been proven correct because further investigation by the military showed that those concrete blocks, numbering 75 scattered within the 120-square-kilometer strategically important shoal, were not put by the Chinese, but by the Americans, who were in nearby Subic naval Base for more than 80 years until 1991, when the Philippine Senate junked the RP-US Military Bases Agreement.
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 for many years. The probe also found that the blocks had been used by the U.S. Navy as “sinkers” to preserve the wreckage of old ships they used for target practice.
The information contradicts Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin’s statement at the congressional budget hearing in September in which he accused China of laying the foundation for structures similar to what it did in Mischief Reef in the Spratly Islands in 1995.
PH Navy photos, Sept. 2, 2013Concrete blocks or just rocks and corals?Chinese photos taken second week of Sept. 2013
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 after the Armed Forces of the Philippines came out with photographs showing concrete blocks in Bajo de Masinloc, China released photos that showed only rocks and corals.
The photos sent by China to Philippine officials were said to have been taken second week of September to support the statement issued by China’s Foreign Ministry that the Philippine claim was “fabricated.”
DFA Spokesman Raul Hernandez: His is not an enviable job.If the reason for the cancellation of the supposedly Sept. 3 visit of President Aquino to China was because the Chinese government set conditions that would be inimical to Philippine interest, and Aquino rejected it, why wasn’t he the one who cancelled the visit?
Remember, it was China who gave notice to the Philippines that they didn’t find this time “conducive” for Aquino to visit China.
Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Raul Hernandez released Monday a Q&A briefer and like all badly written script, it raised more questions.
Four of the five questions (The first one was about the invitation.):
Were there any concerns and conditions from China for the President’s attendance?
Nanning International Exposition CenterThe Department of Foreign Affairs issued Monday a media briefer on the China-Asean Expo (CAEXPO) but skipped the issue that President Aquino was not informed that China had canceled as early as Aug. 23 his planned attendance at the event on Sept. 3.
DFA’s failure to relay China’s message to Malacañang that Aquino visit “at a more conducive time” and send instead Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo had put the President in an embarrassing situation as he announced on Aug. 28 his trip to Nanning, Guangxi, site of this year’s Expo.
In a media briefing, Foreign Affairs Spokesman Raul Hernandez read a five-point Question and Answer and did not entertain questions.
The Q &A insisted that Aquino was invited by China, belying a statement by the Chinese Foreign Ministry that “China never extended an invitation to the Philippine president.”
Hernandez referred reporters to China’s note verbale to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations sent through this year’s coordinator, Thailand, saying “it is our sincere hope that the leaders of the 10 ASEAN members states would make their presence at the 10th CAEXPO.”
President Benigno S. Aquino III at the 27th Apolinario Mabini Awardees on Aug. 28 during which he said he was visiting China on Sept. 3.Early last week, President Aquino was telling everybody—from the Vietnamese defense minister to guests at the 2013 Apolinario Mabini Awards in Malacanang—that he was pushing through with his Sept. 3 visit to China.
The media reported the trip on Wednesday, and quoted the President saying, “Bibiyahe ho tayo next week. Mahaba hong biyahe sa China. Alis akong ala-singko ng umaga; balik ho nang ala-singko ng hapon. Ayaw nating ma-overstay ang welcome natin doon (We are traveling next week. It will be a long trip to China. I will leave 5 a.m., back 5 p.m. We don’t want to wear out their welcome).”
What Aquino did not know then that he was really not welcome at this time in China, which had already canceled the visit the previous week.
Sources say the President could have been spared the diplomatic embarrassment—or “loss of face,” as the Chinese would say—had officials in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Malacañang only acted fast enough and followed up Chinese efforts to arrange the visit, plans for which began more than a month ago.
