Triple action plan crafted to ease tension in disputed sea – DFA chief

MANILA, Philippines - Foreign Affairs Secetary Albert del Rosario  expressed hope yesterday that tension in the West Philippine Sea would be eased through the Triple Action Plan (TAP) that the Philippines has proposed.

In an interview after the budget hearing st the Senate, Del Rosario said the TAP was precisely crafted to see if tension could be eased.

“In the meanwhile, all of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) members have declared that we have to do something about the escalating tension,” he said.

TAP’s three priorities are cessation of activities that escalate tension, push for the Declaration of Conduct and the final objective of arbitration to provide the basis for clarification of maritime claims, he added.

Del Rosario disputed the claim of a Chinese think tank that TAP has become irrelevant since the Philippines had already filed an arbitration case against China before the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS).

“We didn’t say that it would be done in steps,” he said. “Because we are already there. What we are trying to do is we are trying to address the escalating tension.” 

Recently, Chinese academician Wu Shicun, president and senior research fellow of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, told a group of Filipinos TAP did not take off because the Philippines went on to file the arbitration case.

“The filing of arbitration case is supposed to be final approach in settling the dispute over the overlapping territorial boundaries by claimant countries,” Wu said.

During the Senate hearing, Del Rosario said the Philippine campaign on the West Philippine Sea has gained the support of the European Union, including Germany.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has endorsed arbitration as a mechanism of international law on the issue of the Philippine claim over disputed areas ain the West Philippine Sea, he added.

Arbitration

Consul General to San Francisco Henry Bensurto Jr. said the Philippine panel is expecting the oral hearing to start between March to July next year.

“We hope to have an award by early 2016,” he said.

Senate subcommittee on finance chairman Loren Legarda asked Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) officials if Chinese Premier Xi Jingping’s visit to Germany two weeks ago had something to do with the case filed before the UNLCOS.

“Was he campaigning to Chancellor Merkel?” she asked.

Bensurto said Merkel presented the Chinese premier a map depicting ancient Asia and Southeast Asia.

“What is very telling in that 17th century map is that there is no nine-dash line and Hainan does not belong to China, and this is an old map,” he said.

Pag-asa island

Del Rosario said the DFA and the Department of National  Defense (DND) are coordinating over the suspension of   infrastructure works at Pag-asa Island in the West Philippine Sea.

He explained that while “we are entitled” to “improvement, maintenance, upgrading” on Pag-Asa, “we are saying that okay, until such time that the arbitration comes down, maybe we should not pursue this...so that we try to assume a moral high ground.”

Del Rosario reiterated the statement of Defense Secetary Voltaire Gazmin that President Aquino has ordered the suspension of activities in the disputed islands to enable the country to establish moral high ground against China’s claims.

‘China won’t seize Pag-asa’

China has reportedly dropped a plan to seize Pag-Asa from the Philippines, and would instead build air and naval facilities on reclaimed and occupied Kagitingan (Fiery Cross) Reef, an obscure rock structure located right within the Spratlys archipelago.

In a published report, China Daily said China is now building a military base on Kagitingan, a formerly obscure rock formation right inside the 200-nautical mile Philippine exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

“China is building a military base in the Spratlys to control the entire South China and drops plans to invade Philippines’ Zhongye Island (Pag-Asa Island),” read the report.

China is also transforming into tourism sites as well as forward military facilities four artificial islands created out of the four reefs   reclaimed early this year.

The newspaper said China is spending $5 billion for the construction of an air and naval base, as well as fishery and fish farming facilities on Kagitingan and   Mischief Reef.

China’s military was reported to have drawn up a plan to invade Pag-Asa, but the central authority has disapproved the invasion plan in favor of the construction of a $5-billion   “unsinkable aircraft carrier” in the middle of the West Philippine Sea.

‘Constructive engagement’

“We are, at all times, trying to achieve a constructive engagement with China,” Del Rosario said.

He said President Aquino and Chinese President Hu Jintao had agreed that the West Philippine Sea “will not be the total sum of our relationship.”

“At that time, there were commitments by China related to trade and tourism. And these were quantified. We were very happy about that because the agreement was based on the assumption that we would abstract the contentious issues. That is what we are trying to work on, to have them honor that agreement.” – Christina Mendez, Jaime Laude