China to work with PHL on ship ramming probe – ministry

China on Tuesday said that it was are ready to enhance communication with the Philippines on the investigation on the June 9 Recto Bank ramming of a Philippine fishing boat by a Chinese vessel.

"We are ready... [to] increase understanding, dispel mistrust and find out what actually happened” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang, adding, “China attaches great importance to maritime safety.”

China also expressed its "sympathy to the Filipino fishermen who were in distress" and assured it would “continue to earnestly investigate into this matter.”

Lu also maintained that the incident was an “accidental collision” and that Filipino and Chinese fishermen “have long been friendly with each other, rendering mutual assistance to the best of their capabilities in times of need."

Nevertheless, China called criticisms on the Recto Bank incident “irresponsible” and “counter-constructive,” and these were nothing more than "political interpretations" of the event.

On June 9, 22 Filipino crew were left at the Recto Bank, also known as the Reed Bank, off the western Philippine province of Palawan after their fishing boat was hit by a Chinese vessel causing it to founder.

Felony

President Rodrigo Duterte, who has adopted a friendly stance towards China, has refrained from publicly criticizing Beijing, but his spokesman Salvador Panelo called the incident “uncivilized and outrageous.”

Speaking before the United Nations on Monday (Tuesday in Manila), Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. gave an account of the incident.

“The rescue of persons in distress is a universally recognized obligation of people and governments; and in civil law and, maybe even in common law, it is a felony to abandon people in distress, especially when we cause that distress; and more so when it is no bother at all to save them at no risk to oneself,” Locsin said.

A Department of Foreign Affairs statement said Locsin “was referring to the sinking by a Chinese vessel of a Philippine fishing vessel anchored in Recto Bank in Palawan, in the West Philippine Sea on 9 June 2019.”

“The 22 Filipino crew were left in the water until a Vietnamese vessel took them on board,” the DFA said in a statement.

A Vietnamese vessel rescued the Filipino crewmen of the sunken F/B Gim-Vir 1 and were later secured by a patrolling Philippine navy frigate.

In his speech, Locsin thanked Vietnam for “this act of mercy and decency.”

Manila has filed a diplomatic protest as Philippine officials strongly condemned the Chinese action.

Exclusive economic zone

China admitted last week the presence of a Chinese vessel in the Recto Bank, which is within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone as allowed by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea or UNCLOS but being claimed by China.

In its initial findings, China said the Chinese vessel sailed away after it was swarmed by several Filipino fishing boats.

The Chinese captain “tried to rescue the Filipino fishermen, but was afraid of being besieged by other Filipino fishing boats,” it said.

Chinese officials said the vessel stayed behind and only left the area after “Filipino fishing boats” rescued the fishermen.

Former Foreign Secretary Albert Del Rosario, who led the Philippines’ arbitration case against China in 2016, questioned the Chinese vessel’s presence in Reed Bank.

He said the Chinese vessel has no right to fish in Reed Bank since the area is within the country’s EEZ.

“The rights to fish there are exclusively ours,” he said.

Del Rosario also rebuffed China’s claims that it did not abandon the Filipino fishermen.

“If we had our other fishing boats in the area as declared by the Chinese captain, why did our poor fishermen have to wait hours to be rescued by our Vietnanese friends?”

“This debunks the first explanation of China.  A second explanation could only make things even worse,” Del Rosario said.

In his speech at the commemoration of the 25th Anniversary of the entry into force of UNCLOS, Locsin pointed out that it is the obligation of every member state of the UN “to pay not just lip service” to international maritime conventions “but to observe them in real life-and-death situations.”

China and the Philippines are among the 163 signatory states to the treaty.

Competing claims by the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan to the South China Sea, a strategic waterway believed to be sitting atop huge gas and oil deposits, have sparked occasional violence and now regarded as a potential regional flashpoint for armed conflict.

China claims a huge swathe of the South China Sea as part of its territory, but the Permanent Court of Arbitration tribunal in The Hague invalidated this claim in July 12, 2016 following the case filed by the Philippines in 2013.

Beijing has ignored and belittled the ruling, insisting it has “indisputable” and “historical” claim over nearly the entire waters even as it encroaches on the territories of its smaller neighbors like the Philippines.

Locsin said “rule of law must be adhered to by all States Parties in the belief that no one can thrive nor survive for long in anarchy. Whether international law can be enforced is another matter.”

In a rare move by the Philippines under the Duterte administration, Locsin, citing the importance of the UNCLOS in maritime incidents, mentioned the arbitration case filed by the Philippines against China and later on won after a Netherlands-based court invalidated Beijing's massive sea claims,

It is on the basis of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, he said that the Philippines “filed a carefully crafted and successful complaint at The Hague to clarify the legal situation in the South China Sea; to remove the confusion or the pretext of confusion on the part of those violating it.”

The decision defined for the first time which South China Sea features were considered islands, rocks and low-tide elevations under UNCLOS.

It is a crucial decision as it defines the extent of territorial waters that can be projected by a particular type of maritime feature. — DVM, GMA News