Scarred, burrowed

It is not our wish to add to the intense situation already prevailing these past few weeks since the poaching of Chinese fishermen at the Panatag (international: Scarborough) Shoal. The seriousness of the problem is becoming ridiculous when hackers entered into the fray using much wider space without boundaries and where no one observes any rules of conduct.

From the disputed territorial areas in South China Sea, the conflict has spread into cyber space. It is where some of the war-freak Netizens who have nothing better to do with their idle time do their own thing. They get into something they have no idea about except what they pick up from media here and there. Unfortunately, they have no full grasp of the deeper issues involved.

The initial assault in cyber space was allegedly traced all the way to China. Ironically, Facebook and other social networking sites are supposedly censored all over China, if not cut off from the rest of the online world. Anyway, Filipino hackers were quick to retaliate and the cyber war became viral.

Instead of achieving the desire of both sides to “de-escalate” the situation, the whole thing is becoming a full-blown diplomatic irritant now raging between Manila and Beijing.

The Panatag Shoal, known internationally as Scarborough Shoal, is 124 nautical miles from our own Zambales province. Centuries-old maps of the Philippines printed in Europe refer to the shoal as Bajo de Masinloc.

The area is within the Philippines’ 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Both the Philippines and China are signatory-states to this international instrument.

On the other hand, China calls the shoal as Huangyang Island. It is more than 500 nautical miles away from Hainan, the nearest Chinese province. Based on historical claims, China insists the shoals located in the South China Sea belong to them, including the Spratly islands. Six other nations in the region also have territorial claims on shoals, reefs, islets, and atolls around Spratlys.

It all started last April 8 when eight fishing vessels, with Chinese markings on their side hulls, were spotted anchored in the disputed Panatag Shoal. The Philippine Navy deployed its largest warship BRP Gregorio del Pilar to check on the reported presence of intruders, if not poachers.

A team of Navy sailors boarded to inspect the fishing vessels. They found corals, giant clams and even live sharks onboard these fishing vessels. Our Navy did not seize what were obviously illegally harvested marine resources from the shoal or did not make any arrest of the Chinese poachers. Understandably, this is a simple law enforcement job that the Navy must turn over to the Philippine Coast Guard.

The standoff ensued when Chinese maritime surveillance ships suddenly appeared at the Panatag Shoal and anchored between the BRP del Pilar and the Chinese fishing vessels. The Philippine Navy immediately reported these developments to higher authorities. The Philippine government, through the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), called the attention of the Chinese embassy in Manila about the developing situation.

DFA Secretary Alberto del Rosario and Chinese Ambassador Ma Keqing tried to sort things out and promised to each other “no surprises” from either side while doing so. To “de-escalate” the situation, the BRP Del Pilar was pulled out and ships from the Philippine Coast Guard and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) were instead deployed.

But while Del Rosario and the Chinese ambassador were talking, the eight Chinese fishing vessels slipped out one after the other and brought with them the maritime species they harvested from the shoal. In an apparent show of force and to insist their territorial claims over the shoal, more Chinese gunboats arrived and even started patrolling the area.

So somewhere along the way, the element of trust has gone astray, the DFA secretary lamented. Such elicited strong words from no less our own Defense secretary, retired Gen. Voltaire Gazmin, who denounced China’s “bully” tactics at its worst.

Gazmin pooh-poohed specifically China’s territorial claims over Panatag Shoal which used to be the gunnery range of the American military while the United States occupied the Subic Naval Base in Olongapo City, Zambales and the Clark Air Base in Angeles City, Pampanga.

The Panatag Shoal was used in the target practice of American fighter planes while the US were still operating the two bases. Aside from fishing, Filipinos went there to salvage spent shells and sell them to “mambabakal” for extra income.

These bold incursions by China into Panatag Shoal obviously came only when the US left its military bases. This brings to mind a similar incident in May 1999 also in the same contested area.

No less than former DFA Secretary Domingo Siazon Jr. recalled this incident which happened during his watch under the administration of former President Joseph Estrada. Speaking last week in a forum hosted by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines, Siazon specifically mentioned the incident involving a Philippine Navy ship skippered “by a young Navy commander who is now an incumbent politician.” Siazon refused to name him but he was obviously referring to then Navy officer, now Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.

For several days the Navy ship was patrolling, Siazon said, it encountered several Chinese fishing boats at Panatag Shoal with which it collided, sinking two of them “by accident.” Through diplomatic channels, Siazon called up his good friend Wang Yi from the Chinese Foreign Ministry who was then chief of Asian affairs. Wang, who formerly served as China’s ambassador to Japan, also speaks well the Japanese language like Siazon does.

 Siazon convinced the Chinese fishermen they would be compensated for their lost fishing vessels. Filipino-Chinese business groups chipped in to reimburse the Chinese fishermen since the Philippine government would not and could not do so. To make the story short, all’s well that ends well. But Siazon conceded these incidents would keep happening if Chinese fishermen could do their thing with impunity in these areas that have scarred, burrowed Philippine-China relations.