PHL powerless vs. China attempt to reclaim Scarborough Shoal, envoy admits

Manila’s top envoy to Washington Jose Cuisia on Tuesday admitted that the Philippines, which has one of the weakest militaries in Asia, is incapable of stopping China from reclaiming a shoal it seized from the country after a standoff in 2012.

“We can not. We do not have the capability,” Cuisia told foreign correspondents in Manila when asked if there’s a way for the Philippines to prevent China from turning the resource-rich rocky outcrop that lies just 140 miles from Manila into its eighth artificial island in the disputed South China Sea.

According to Cuisia, US Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson has confirmed that a Chinese survey vessel was spotted on the shoal, locally known as Panatag Shoal or Bajo de Masinloc, “a few weeks ago,” in what could be a prelude to another Chinese construction in the area.

China, which maintains indisputable and historical right over nearly the entire waters, insists its construction activities are legal and were conducted within its sovereign boundaries.

“The US military will not make that statement unless they have some proof and it was made by no less than the Chief of Naval Operations who is a very senior officer,” said Cuisia.

Any attempt by China to reclaim the shoal, Cuisia said, will be a “very provocative” action that will “further escalate the tensions and conflict” in the waters, where Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have competing claims.

The envoy said he hopes the United States – a long-time treaty ally of the Philippines – and other countries would be able to convince Beijing against undertaking any move to transform the shoal into an artificial island.

In less than two years, Beijing has reclaimed nearly 3,000 acres of land from the South China Sea, transforming seven formerly submerged reefs into military outposts equipped with radars, landing strips, and huge buildings. Surface-to-air missiles on one of the disputed features were also installed, according to reports.

China’s massive island-building came immediately after the Philippines filed in January 2013 a case against Beijing before the Netherlands-based Permanent Court of Arbitration to try to declare as illegal and excessive its massive claim based on its unilateral nine-dash line map.

The map shows a U-shaped enclosure, first made public by Beijing in 1947, that puts almost the entire South China Sea, including parts of the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, under its territory.

China has repeatedly declared that it will not honor the tribunal’s decision.

Cuisia said the US and China will have a strategic bilateral meeting this June and hopes the meeting would be an opportunity for America to dissuade Beijing from engaging in actions that would further complicate the security in the South China Sea.

“We hope the US and other countries that precisely are saying that this (reclamation in the Scarborough) would be provocative, they would be able to convince China not to proceed with that,” Cuisia said. “The US would have another meeting with China in early June. That’s their regular, strategic and economic dialogue and I’m sure that’s going to be one of the topics again.”

The maritime standoff with China in the Manila-claimed Scarborough Shoal in 2012, which resulted in the shoal falling under Chinese control, prompted the Philippine government to seek international arbitration.

A final decision, Philippine diplomats said, is expected on or before May this year.

PHL-China talks

Four years since the standoff on April 8, 2012, Cuisia revealed that the US State Department brokered the talks between the Philippines and China for both sides to simultaneously withdraw from the shoal at a “specific date and time.”

Cuisia said he was part of the discussions initiated by the State Department, along with his Chinese counterpart.

He said he and the Chinese envoy had a verbal agreement for both Philippine and Chinese vessels to leave the shoal at the same time – an understanding reaffirmed by the State Department. China has denied such agreement existed.

“That was actually brokered by the State Department, but China breached that agreement and China was saying, ‘What agreement?’ as if they were not part of it,” Cuisia said.

“The idea was to try to de-escalate the tension at that time because there are so many vessels facing each other and any minute that could have resulted in some kind of accidental clash. I think we were successful in doing that but the problem is precisely the Chinese vessel did not leave that area anymore after that,” he lamented. “They pulled a fast one on us.” — RSJ, GMA News