PH ‘not obliged’ to seek navigation approval

THE Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has reiterated that the Philippines is under “no obligation” to seek approval from any country to navigate its own territorial sea, including the area around Bajo de Masinloc or Scarborough Shoal.

In a statement on Thursday, the DFA debunked the claim of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) that the Philippine Navy ship BRP Conrado Yap sailed illegally into the waters near Bajo de Masinloc last October 30, and the claim only serves “to raise tensions in the West Philippine Sea.” Beijing has long asserted that the shoal lies within its territorial waters.

Department of Foreign Affairs

“There is no obligation for the Philippines as a sovereign state to seek the approval of another when navigating its own territorial sea,” the DFA said. “It is China that is intruding into Philippine waters.”

The Bajo de Masinloc, it added, is “an integral part of the Philippine territory and over which the Philippines has sovereignty and jurisdiction.”

The United States embassy in Manila sided with the DFA, saying the PLA’s “persistent swarming and shadowing of the Philippine Navy and Coast Guard — as well as of fishing and other vessels — near Scarborough Reef are detrimental to regional peace and stability.”

The embassy in a statement urged China “to respect the navigational rights and freedoms guaranteed to all States under international law.”

The Philippines has “consistently demanded that Chinese vessels in Bajo de Masinloc leave the area immediately,” the Foreign Affairs department said.

It said it “will continue to be vigilant in protecting our country’s sovereignty and safeguarding the rights provided for under Unclos (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea).”

In 2016 an arbitral court rejected China’s claims to historic rights, or other rights or jurisdiction, over much of the South China Sea under its so-called “nine-dash line,” the DFA said.

It defended the Philippine maritime patrols in the waters around Bajo de Masinloc as a “legitimate and routine act of a sovereign country in its territory and territorial sea and is part of the Philippines’ administrative responsibility.”

It “reminded” Chinese authorities that its “apparent exercise of maritime law enforcement powers, interference with Philippine vessels, harassment and intimidation of Filipino fisherfolk, or any other activity that infringes upon the Philippines’ sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction in Bajo de Masinloc and the West Philippine Sea” violated international law.