Palace: Philippines to continue exercising sovereign rights in Ayungin, rest of EEZ

Malacañang said Friday the Philippines will continue to exercise its sovereign rights within its exclusive economic zone in the West Philippine Sea.

Acting presidential spokesperson Karlo Nograles was responding to China's demand for the Philippines to pull out its navy ship BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal which lies within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

China made the demand after its coast guard blocked and fired water cannons at two Philippine boats on a resupply mission to BRP Sierra Madre at the Ayungin Shoal last November 16.

This prompted President Duterte to call out China

"Paulit-ulit namang binabalikan lagi ni Pangulong [Rodrigo] Duterte sa mga summits, pati na rin sa pagsasalita niya sa  United Nations...'yung UNCLOS at 'yung arbitral award. Doon po, napakaliwanag po na kabilang po iyan (Ayungin) sa ating EEZ (The President has said time and time again, even before the United Nations, that it is clear under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas and the arbitral award, that Ayungin is within our EEZ)," Nograles said.

"Kabilang iyan sa ating teritoryo (It is our territory), and we will fully exercise our sovereign rights over our territory," Nograles added.

Under the UNCLOS, where China is a signatory like the Philippines, a country's exclusive economic zone shall not extend beyond 200 nautical miles from the  baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured.

The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration upheld this in a July 2016 decision by junking China's nine-dash claim in the South China Sea. In the same ruling, the PCA ruled that the Spratly Islands, Panganiban (Mischief) Reef, Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal, and Recto (Reed) Bank are within the Philippine EEZ.

China has not apologized for its water cannon attack and instead argued that the Philippine supply vessels were trespassing. Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana responded by saying it was the Chinese who were trespassing given the Philippines' legal claims in the area.—AOL, GMA News