Marcos rules out warship deployment in West PH Sea
President Marcos on Tuesday ruled out the deployment of Philippine Navy warships in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) despite the continuing harassment of Filipino vessels by the China Coast Guard (CCG) and lately the reported involvement of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy.
But Mr. Marcos said the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) would continue to conduct routine resupply missions for Filipino fishermen in the disputed waters.
“If we look at the evolution of the situation in the West Philippine Sea, the Philippines has never been an agent of escalation of tensions,” he said in a media interview in Bulacan province.
“So we will not do that (sending warships),” Mr. Marcos added.
Available option
On Saturday, Commodore Jay Tarriela, the PCG spokesperson on the West Philippine Sea, said the President may opt to send Philippine Navy warships as a “reciprocal act” following the unprecedented involvement of a PLA Navy vessel in shadowing a PCG craft.
Tarriela was referring to one of the incidents in the West Philippine Sea on Dec. 4, when the BRP Teresa Magbanua, the PCG’s largest vessel, was shadowed by a PLA warship at a distance of 300 yards near Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal, also known as Bajo de Masinloc, off Zambales province.
“This is the first time we have encountered a PLA Navy warship closely shadowing the PCG in Bajo de Masinloc,” Tarriela then said, adding that the deployment of the PLA Navy “was now becoming part of (China’s) strategy in asserting their position in the [WPS].”
But Mr. Marcos on Tuesday said: “We are not at war. We don’t need Navy warships.”
Not being ‘provocative’
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a North Luzon Expressway project inauguration in Pulilan, Bulacan province, the President said the PCG and BFAR would keep conducting resupply missions—and that these should not be seen as intended to raise tensions.
“We are going to continue to perform our mission. We will never be part of an escalation in the situation in the West Philippine Sea,” he said.
Sending Navy warships might be seen as “provocative and will be seen as an escalation,” the President said. “All we are doing is resupplying our fishermen, protecting our territorial rights.”
“The Philippines does not escalate tensions. Quite the opposite, the Philippines always tries to bring down the level of tension,” he stressed.
The Philippines refers to the portion of the South China Sea that it claims as the West Philippine Sea.
On Dec. 4, Chinese coast guard vessels fired a water cannon and sideswiped a BFAR boat transporting supplies to Filipino fishermen operating at Panatag, according to Philippine officials.
PCG vessels also faced “blocking, shadowing and dangerous maneuvers” from a Chinese navy vessel.
Days after the Dec. 4 encounters, Manila filed another diplomatic protest against Beijing, which claims almost all of the South China Sea.
China’s embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
China’s coast guard said last week that Philippine ships “dangerously approached” Beijing’s territorial waters around Scarborough Shoal. —WITH A REPORT FROM REUTERS
