In swarming Pagasa, China aims to control Sandy Cay

China’s posting of militia craft around Pagasa Island is illegal. And barring Filipino fishers from approaching nearby Sandy Cay complicates it. Foreign Sec. Teddy Locsin rightly protested last week the intrusions in Philippine waters.

Pagasa is Philippine territory. As such, the surrounding sea up to 12 nautical miles (nm) is Philippine territory too. Under international law, foreigners innocently may pass through. But vessels must traverse only a straight path from Points A to B, says Dr. Jay Batongbacal, head of the UP Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea. They may not stop, zigzag or circle, explore or fish. To do so violates territorial sovereignty. The diplomatic protest signifies Philippine disapproval of China’s stationary militia in Pagasa.

The AFP Western Command had sighted 657 militia trespasses in January-March 2019. Two hundred seventy-five individual craft were identified from their markings, flag, and shape. Formed in 2016 in Sansha, Hainan province, China’s militia consists of thousands of fishing launches. Fishermen are equipped, trained, and deployed for maritime patrol, espionage and, in Pagasa’s case, naval and geopolitical offensive. China’s navy, coast guard, and militia are under the command of the People’s Liberation Army. The PLA is not a Chinese state force but of the Chinese Communist Party, making it the world’s largest private army.

China’s objective in swarming Pagasa is to take control of Sandy Cay, says Batongbacal. Sandy Cay is a new island five nm off Pagasa, so within the 12-nm territorial sea. Formerly three sandbars visible only at low tide, Sandy Cay emerged above high tide in 2017 from China’s illegal dredging of nearby Zamora Reef. Pulverized coral accumulated to elevate the feature. By grabbing Sandy Cay, China hopes to generate its own 12-nm territorial sea.

China earlier illegally had landfilled Zamora Reef. Also called Subi, it is one of seven reefs that China concreted into island-fortresses starting 2013. The seven are within the Philippines’ 200-nm exclusive economic zone that emanates from mainland Luzon, Palawan, and Mindanao. Zamora is special, though. The UN Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016 declared it part of Pagasa’s territorial limit. By holding Zamora, China illegally is occupying Philippine territory, says Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio.

The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea does not recognize artificial islands to generate territorial seas. Since Zamora permanently was submerged, China is insecure of its hold on the reef. It covets naturally formed and permanently surfaced Sandy Cay. By controlling Sandy Cay, it can have an island with 12-nm territorial waters, plus Zamora with it.

The Philippine Navy in 2017 read China’s intent over Sandy Cay, Batongbacal recounts. To help Filipinos fishing there, it pitched tents as temporary shelter. Beijing howled that Manila was violating the 2002 Declaration of Conduct between ASEAN and China. Supposedly Manila was inhabiting formerly unoccupied features in the South China Sea. President Rody Duterte ordered a withdrawal. Lost in the din was China’s previous breach of the 2002 DOC in taking hold of the seven Philippine reefs.

China now bars Filipino fishing boats from venturing to Sandy Cay. Armed coast guards blare sirens and chase them off. The militia was posted to form a barrier around Sandy Cay. Militia boats also illegally fish in Pagasa territorial waters. Merely stopping there is poaching, says Batongbacal.

It’s a repeat of China’s 2012 deceit in Scarborough Shoal. Hainanese illegally were harvesting fan corals, giant clams, and sea turtles. After a month-long standoff, Chinese and Filipino warships agreed to withdraw from the Philippine shoal 120 nm from Luzon. After Filipino sailors departed, Chinese vessels filed into the horseshoe-shaped feature. To this day its coast guards water-cannon Zambales fishermen and seize their catch. Former foreign secretary Albert del Rosario and former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales have accused Chinese President Xi Jinping of crimes against humanity. In concreting the reefs and invading Scarborough, Xi allegedly marred the environment, food sources, and fishermen’s livelihoods. The International Criminal Court was asked to prosecute him. The Chinese ambassador to Manila tells Filipinos to steer clear of Scarborough and Sandy Cay to avoid trouble.

Carpio had advised in June to defend Sandy Cay, lest Pagasa lose a third of its territorial waters. That’s happening now with China’s militia swarm. The militia is a political booby-trap. If Manila forcibly ejects them Beijing will retaliate with arms.

China’s end goal is to overrun Pagasa. It claims to own by historic right the entire South China Sea. The UN court in 2016 had outlawed Beijing’s imagined nine-dash line territorial map. Meanwhile, Beijing beguiles Manila with infrastructure loans, Carpio and Batongbacal warn. Onerous provisos will make Manila turn over natural resources, like oil- and gas-rich Recto Bank in Palawan, in case of repayment default.

Pagasa is the largest naturally formed island in the Spratly chain. It is permanently above sea level, has life-sustaining vegetation, fresh water sources, and inhabitants.

It is the seat of government of the municipality of Kalayaan in Palawan province. Named Freedomland by Tomas Cloma in 1947 and inhabited in 1956, Pagasa formally came under government control in 1974. It has an airstrip, a seaport, and 1,400 civilian residents under a mayor.

I have visited twice. Toured by a Marine captain in 1981, I saw the flora and fauna. A giant coconut crab climbed up a tree, clipped a fruit that fell and cracked, then clambered down to pry it open with huge claws and finish off the meat. The second time, in 2005, there already were solar panels for electricity, a schoolhouse, goat farm, fish drying facilities, and municipal and barangay halls.

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