Tag: Spratlys

DFA is misleading public in Sabah for Spratlys issue

Published by Ellen on March 31, 2015

Disclosure: I am one of the trustees and writers of VERA Files, a group of veteran journalist who put out articles that take a deeper look at current issues.

Last Monday, VERA Files released a story, “PH offers Sabah to win Malaysia’s support for UN case vs China.”
The article said, “ The quid pro quo was contained in a note verbale the Department of Foreign Affairs handed to a representative of the Malaysian Embassy last week, a week after the visit of Malaysian Defense Minister Dato Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein.

“The note verbale, a copy of which was obtained by VERA Files, referred to the May 6, 2009 joint submission by Malaysia and Vietnam to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) in which Malaysia claimed an extended continental shelf (350 nautical miles from baseline) that was clearly projected from Sabah.

PH offers Sabah to win Malaysia’s support for UN case vs China

Published by Ellen on March 30, 2015

By Tessa Jamandre,VERA Files

The Philippines has offered to downgrade its claim on Sabah in exchange for Malaysia’s support for its case against China before the United Nations.

The quid pro quo was contained in a note verbale the Department of Foreign Affairs handed to a representative of the Malaysian Embassy last week, a week after the visit of Malaysian Defense Minister Dato Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein.

Justice Carpio explains Itu Aba issue in the PH suit vs China

Published by Ellen on February 8, 2015

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 Lourdes Sereno opposed the appointment of Jardeleza to the High Court accusing him of treason when he omitted Itu Aba in the Memorial or memorandum filed before the United Nations Arbitral Tribunal in connection with the case filed by the Philippine questioning the legality of China’s nine-dashed line map which overreaches into the territory of the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei.

Itu Aba is occupied by Taiwan, once part of China but now considers itself a sovereign state as Republic of China. The Philippines adopts a One-China policy which considers Taiwan a province of China.

Magdalo Rep scores neglect of PH-occupied territories in Spratlys

Published by Ellen on August 28, 2014

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.

Acedillo, in a privilege speech titled “Our country is in grave danger,”questioned what seems to be a government policy of benign neglect in our occupied territories in Spratlys.

“With an Air Force that can’t protect our air space and a Navy that can’t protect our maritime interest, claimant countries have accelerated their creeping occupation of our islands,” said Acedillo, formerly an Air Force Officer who was detained for seven years for rebelling against Gloria Arroyo in what was known as “The Oakwood Mutiny.”

The latest from Aquino on China

Published by Ellen on June 5, 2014

President Aquino flanked by Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin.

For reporters, President Aquino is always worth the time and effort to interview because he always says something newsworthy. Either a controversial remark (when he compared China’s aggressive activities in the South China Sea as similar to Hitler’s 1939 invasion of Czechoslovakia after they were handed Sudetenland by Great Britain) or a new information.

Reporters usually do not get that kind of candidness from more mature and prudent statesmen especially in foreign relations issues.

In other countries, they have department or ministry spokesmen, who do the talking on running issues. But President Aquino is, well, PNoy.

Malacañang websites under attack by suspected Chinese networks

Published by Ellen on April 23, 2012

Statement from the Office of Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda: On the denial-of-service attack on PCDSPO-maintained websites At around four o’clock in the afternoon of April…

2 unidentified aircraft spotted in PH airspace in Spratlys

Published by Ellen on July 18, 2011

By Tessa Jamandre
VERA Files

verafiles-boxall-marker-cropped — Boxall marker

An aggressive overflight reconnaissance over the 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.

On July 11, two unidentified aircraft were spotted in the airspace within the country’s 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone, according to a spot report seen by VERA Files.

Filipino fishermen sighted the aircraft, a gray chopper and a green plane they said resembles a “Tora Tora” or a T-28 fighter plane, flying low at Boxall Reef located 163 nautical miles from the Philippine Navy’s naval station in Ulugan Bay or 97 nautical miles from the southernmost tip of mainland Palawan.

A group of fishermen saw the green plane at 9 a.m. and another group spotted the gray chopper at 10:40 a.m., heading in the same northern direction, the report said.

The Tora Tora-like plane was hovering in the area at an altitude of about 20 feet and the chopper at about 30 feet, it said.
Quoting the fishermen who reported the sighting of the chopper, the military said, “There were more or less five crew on board and wearing green uniform. The small markings on its undercarriage were unreadable.”

Joint use in Spratlys: ‘What is mine is mine and what is yours, we share’

Published by Ellen on July 11, 2011

JMSU map sent by Golez — The red line is the coverage of the JMSU. The area to the right of the blue line is Philippine-claimed territory.

Retired Philippine diplomat Alberto Encomienda quipped when he delivered his paper “The South China Sea: Back to the Future through Cooperation” that with all meetings and conferences, as many as 20 in one year, being held on the South China Sea, it’s no longer “confidence building.”

We are now experiencing “conference building,” he said.

But as Winston Churchill wisely said, “To jaw-jaw always is better than to war-war.”

The organizers of last week’s Manila Conference on the South China Sea deserve congratulations for a substantial program. They got excellent speakers. Even if many of the papers presented overlapped with each other, which cannot be avoided because they revolved around one subject, they all helped in the deepening of understanding of the issue that keeps on popping up on an otherwise stable region.

China hardliners to teach Spratly intruders ‘a lesson’

Published by Ellen on July 11, 2011

(I did this story for VERA Files. It was sent to all media outlets.)

9-dash line — China's map of its claim in the South China Sea. Take note that it includes waters near the Philippines.

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.

Shen Hong-Fang, professor and senior research fellow at the Center of Southeast Asian studies at Xiamen University, spoke of “a new upsurge” of Chinese nationalism set off by claims made by some Asian countries, including the Philippines, over territory China considers its own.

“Some suggested that it is the right time to adopt necessary measures to teach some countries a lesson,” Shen said, startling participants at the two-day Conference on the South China Sea held in Manila last week.

She added there are those who think it justifiable “for China to launch a war against the invaders.”

The Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia have staked claims over some of the 160 islands that constitute the Spratlys in the South China Sea. These countries, along with Indonesia which is a non-claimant, have filed protests before the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) over the “nine-dash line map” China submitted to prove its claim.

Reality check in the Spratlys

Published by Ellen on July 7, 2011

spratlys pagasa island — PH-occupied Pag-asa island in Kalayaan Island Group

Heaven forbid, but 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.

I asked the question if the United States military would enter the picture in case of an armed conflict in the South China Sea in the light of the excitement of some Philippine officials and media over the statement of U.S. State Secretary Hillary and U.S. Ambassador Harry Thomas about continuing to work with the Philippines on all issues including related to the South China Sea conflict and stands by the Philippine “by our commitment under the Mutual Defense Treaty.”