Fil-Ams to protest China’s incursion in West Phl Sea

MANILA, Philippines - A group of Filipino-Americans will stage a rally next month at the United Nations headquarters in New York to protest China’s continuing incursion in the West Philippine Sea.

The group is planning to raise international and local awareness on China’s “creeping invasion” in Philippine territorial waters, the latest of which is Beijing’s deployment of maritime vessels in Ayungin Shoal.

Loida Nicolas Lewis, chair of the US Pinoys for Good Governance, said they would be holding their protest action on July 24.

“China seized the Philippines’ Mischief Reef in 1994, then our Scarborough Shoal (Panatag) last year. This year, China is set to invade and occupy Ayungin Shoal. This is unacceptable,” Lewis said.

Lewis said they are holding the protest in front of the UN headquarters on July 24 to coincide with Beijing’s establishment of Sansha City Prefecture based at Woody Island in the Paracels.

The newly established prefecture, which is under protest by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), has been mandated by China to administer two million square kilometers of the West Philippine Sea, including the Philippines’ territorial waters and the regime of islands and reefs in the Spratlys archipelago.

Ayungin Shoal is located just 105 nautical miles from mainland Palawan and is within the Philippines exclusive economic zone (EEZ), Lewis pointed out.

Since last month, military territorial monitoring showed that Chinese frigates and surveillance vessels were alternately seen within the vicinity of Ayungin, where Filipino troops are stationed on a grounded Philippine Navy logistics and landing tank ship, BRP Sierra Madre.

Spend more for defense

A security official pointed out the need for the country to spend more resources for defense after revealing some 18 Chinese ships are intruding into the country’s waters.

Vicente Agdamag, Deputy Director-General of the National Security Council Secretariat, said the deployment of the Chinese ships highlighted China’s aggressive behavior in the West Philippine Sea.

“Right now, there are 18 maritime surveillance ships operating in our area,” Agdamag said, but declined to say what types of ships were deployed and where they are located.

Agdamag noted the Chinese are imposing an exclusion zone over Panatag Shoal in preventing local fishermen from entering the area.

“Lately, we received reports that surveillance ships are imposing a 24-kilometer wide ban on the fishing area so in fact, they are imposing an exclusion zone already in Bajo de Masinloc,” Agdamag said, referring to Panatag shoal.

Agdamag also enumerated several incidents showing the heavy presence of Chinese ships inside the Philippine maritime territory and areas around the Spratly group of islands also claimed by other countries in the region.  â€“ With Alexis Romero, Evelyn Macairan