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'Walang batayan': PH hits China in Filipino FAQs on sea row

The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs releases a Filipino primer on the maritime dispute 'to facilitate understanding by ordinary Filipinos'

Ayee Macaraig
Jan 08, 2015


FILIPINO PRIMER. The DFA launches a digital pamphlet on the West Philippine Sea to explain the maritime dispute to ordinary Filipinos. Screenshot of West Philippine Sea: Isang Sipat


MANILA, Philippines – “Ano ang batayan ng Tsina sa inaangkin nitong nine-dash line?”  (What is China’s basis for its 9-dash line claim?)

This is just one of the questions the Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) asks and answers in a new primer on the South China Sea dispute tailor-made for one crucial audience: the Filipino masses.

The DFA launched on Wednesday, January 7, what it called a digital pamphlet titled “Ang West Philippine Sea: Isang Sipat” (The West Philippine Sea: An Overview), a 4-page explainer written purely in Filipino. (See full primer below.)

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=79825.0

“The current focus on the maritime disputes in the West Philippine Sea has made it clear that we need to foster the ‘archipelagic consciousness’ among our people,” Jose said.

“By understanding the fundamental link between our maritime heritage and our identities as Filipinos, we build the unshakable will to defend our maritime domain. That is the purpose of this pamphlet and all the other public diplomacy efforts we have been undertaking,” the spokesperson added.

In the pamphlet, the Philippines again accuses China of violating international law, questions the legal basis of China’s 9-dash line claim, and seeks support for its historic arbitration case against Beijing. (READ: Rough seas: Will PH 'lawfare' work vs China?, http://www.rappler.com/nation/77910-philippines-arbitration-china-analysis)

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=79825.0

The explainer includes maps and illustrations, and short descriptions of the maritime features the Philippines claims like Scarborough Shoal and Second Thomas (Ayungin) Shoal, using their Philippine names.

The pamphlet is just the latest effort of the DFA to use information and education to promote the Philippines’ maritime claims, and Manila’s historic arbitration case against Beijing. China has its own media offensive, and releases its own position paper with question-and-answer explainers.

The South China Sea is hotly disputed as it is a major shipping route, fishing ground, and is believed to hold vast deposits of oil and gas. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan also claim parts of the strategic sea.

Jose recently told Rappler that the DFA is planning to include the West Philippine Sea in the elementary and high school curriculum, as the department continues its nationwide information drive on the issue.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=79825.0

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=79825.0

The primer then explained the different maritime entitlements under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the treaty the Philippines uses to question China’s expansive sea claims. Both the Philippines and China are parties to UNCLOS.

These entitlements include the exclusive economic zone (EEZ), which provides a state the exclusive right to explore and exploit natural resources like fish and oil 200 nautical miles from its baselines.

The primer said that instead of abiding by UNCLOS, China insists on using its 9-dash line to assert “indisputable sovereignty” over the South China Sea.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=79825.0

Why support arbitration?

The DFA also sought to explain its legal strategy of going to arbitration, which drew both support and criticism as legal and foreign policy experts debate on the implications of the Philippines’ move against Asia’s rising superpower.

The primer though said that many scholars support the Philippines’ tack of using international law to resolve the dispute.

It added that influential countries like the US, Japan, India, Australia, the European Union and the G7 bloc gave statements of support for the Philippine position.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=79825.0

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=79825.0

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=79825.0

it would be great if this primer is translated into different languages and posted online as well.  surely the dfa can very well do that.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=79825.0

U.S. Navy alarmed at Beijing’s ‘Great Wall of sand’ in South China Sea

By Simon Denyer April 1



A 2014 photo taken by surveillance planes shows a Chinese vessel being used to expand structures and land on the Johnson Reef at the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. (Associated Press)

BEIJING — China is building a “Great Wall of sand” through an unparalleled program of land reclamation in the South China Sea, raising concerns about the possibility of military confrontation in the disputed waters, according to the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.

In one of the strongest and highest-level criticisms of the reclamation project to date, Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr. told a naval conference in Australia late Tuesday that competing territorial claims by several nations in the South China Sea continue to stoke “regional tensions and the potential for miscalculation.”

“But what’s really drawing a lot of concern in the here and now is the unprecedented land reclamation currently being conducted by China,” he added.

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“China is building artificial land by pumping sand onto live coral reefs — some of them submerged — and paving them over with concrete,” he said. In a region known for its beautiful natural islands, he said, “China is creating a Great Wall of sand with dredges and bulldozers over the course of months.”

China claims almost all of the South China Sea as its territorial waters, but its claims overlap with those of Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei.

Last month, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that the country was merely carrying out “necessary construction on its own islands and reefs” and that it would continue to uphold freedom of navigation in the busy shipping waters of the South China Sea, as well as resolve disputes through “direct dialogue” and consultation.

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“This history matters a great deal, because what Washington and its friends and allies may see as punctuated, lightning-speed construction is likely viewed in China as a perfectly legitimate game of catch-up,” Mira Rapp-Hooper, director of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative and a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), wrote in a recent report.

“What sets China’s activities apart, however, is that Beijing has been dramatically changing the size and structure of existing physical land features, while other claimants have built upon or modified existing land masses,” she wrote in a related report.

The only major claimant without an airstrip in the archipelago, China appears to be turning the hitherto largely submerged Fiery Cross Reef into the largest island in the Spratly Islands, experts said.

Yanmei Xie, senior China analyst with the International Crisis Group in Beijing, said the island reclamation project was a deliberate strategic decision.


According to IHS Jane’s, China’s active land reclamation of Fiery Cross Reef began in August. (William Colson/CSIS)

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Harris said that the pace of China’s construction of artificial islands “raises serious questions about Chinese intentions.”

He added, “How China proceeds will be a key indicator of whether the region is heading toward confrontation or cooperation.”

Foreign-policy experts said China’s activities would not reinforce its legal claims to the islands under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea because only natural land features are relevant to maritime rights. But it could help China enforce de facto control of some of the disputed waters.

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