Beijing notified but not asked to approve resupply missions

Contrary to the claim of a Chinese official, the Philippines never sought permission from Beijing for its resupply missions at Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal in the West Philippine Sea, an official of the National Security Council (NSC) said on Wednesday.

“We do not get their permission. We do not allow them to board our ships to do inspection, even visual inspection,” Jonathan Malaya, assistant director general and NSC spokesperson, told reporters in Quezon City.

Liu Dejun, spokesperson of the China Coast Guard, claimed that the Philippine government’s latest rotation and resupply mission on Jan. 24 to Ayungin had Beijing’s approval.

“We don’t get permission. We just have a notification system with them that this is the day we will resupply, so do not interfere with our resupply,” Malaya said.

In July last year, the Philippines and China reached a provisional understanding for the conduct of resupply missions to Filipino troops stationed at BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin after a Filipino sailor lost a thumb during a violent clash between Chinese and Filipino troops in the West Philippine Sea.

Reacting to this, former Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio had said the provisional understanding should be “temporary” and must “end soon.”

Carpio, who was part of Manila’s legal team that won the 2016 landmark arbitral ruling at The Hague, warned that China might expand the arrangement to other Philippine-claimed features in the West Philippine Sea.

“By practice, we actually follow what China wants. We have to sit down with them before we resupply Sierra Madre,” he said.

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Exclusive to Ayungin

But according to Malaya, “we are not going to do that,” adding that the arrangement was only for Ayungin and does not apply to other parts of the West Philippine Sea.

“There is no meeting where we sit down with them or where we meet with them every time we do our resupply mission, we don’t do that,” he stressed.

“There is something called notifying them but not asking for permission. Permission is different from notification,” he said.

The provisional understanding, Malaya said, was a win for the Philippines “because at the end of the day, what is critical for us is we are able to resupply BRP Sierra Madre, and our crew there do not get hungry and BRP Sierra Madre gets to stay there.”