China told: Time to ‘pay up’ for P800-B in maritime wealth taken from West Philippine Sea
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Risa Hontiveros on Thursday renewed her call on China to pay for the damage it caused and the marine wealth it took from the West Philippine Sea which she said now amounts to P800 billion.
Citing data published by international journal Ecosystem Services last year, Hontiveros said the estimated values of reefs destroyed by China in Philippine waters is now up to P231.7 billion.
"The value per coral reef was pegged at P18 million, and this amount was multiplied by 1,850 hectares of reef ecosystems in Panatag and Spratlys that have been damaged by China."
Add to this, she said, some P644 billion worth of looted fish catch since 2014, citing investigative journalist Jarius Bondoc.
"He arrived at the number by multiplying the 1.2 million tons of fish that are usually caught by Chinese vessels in Zamora and Panganiban reefs annually, with Seafdec’s estimated value per ton of fish catch in the South China Sea at P76,710."
In an opinion column for The STAR this week, Bondoc said China has taken as much as P9.72 trillion in Philippine maritime wealth.
Citing former Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario, Hontiveros noted that the livelihood of 350,000 fisherfolk has been adversely affected due to China’s presence in Philippine waters.
Given all this, for Hontiveros, it is "[t]ime to pay up" for China.
"We cannot take back the marine resources that China has destroyed in the WPS. Let's go after what they owe," the senator said in a mix of Filipino and English.
"Let us not get used to them always being acquitted of their abuses in our country. They are already harassing our fishermen, even destroying our natural resources," she added in Filipino.
Last April, Hontiveros called on China to foot the bill of the Philippines' pandemic response by paying reparations for its destructive activity in the West Philippine Sea. At the time, she placed the value of China's debt at P200 billion. Sen. Richard Gordon issued a similar call two months later.
The Chinese Embassy in the Philippines called Hontiveros' demands "ridiculously absurd and irresponsible."
But Hontiveros threw the phrase back at them, saying it is even “more absurd and irresponsible” that Beijing continued to violate Philippine sovereignty in the region in the middle of a global pandemic.
China has long refused to acknowledge an arbitral ruling that invalidated its claims over the resource-rich West Philippine Sea, the part of the South China Sea within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone. — Bella Perez-Rubio
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