DFA dismisses China’s Scarborough evidence
The 1990 document published by the Chinese Embassy in Manila disputing the Philippines’ territorial claims to Scarborough (Bajo de Masinloc) Shoal is “without value,” the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Monday.
DFA Maritime Affairs spokesperson Rogelio Villanueva Jr. made the statement two days after the Chinese Embassy in Manila, in a post on social media, cited as “legal evidence” of its claim to the shoal a correspondence between former Philippine Ambassador to Germany Bienvenido Tan Jr. and German radio operator Dieter Löffler.
In the document from Feb. 5, 1990, Tan told Löffler, “According to the Philippine National Mapping and Resource Information Authority, the Scarborough Reef or Huangyan Dao does not fall within the territorial sovereignty of the Philippines. It is 10 miles off the line drawn under the Treaty of Paris; however, the area is within the 200-mile Philippine economic zone.”
Vested interests
“As regards the recent letter posted by the Chinese Embassy in Manila, the DFA will not engage in conjecture or speculation over a document of uncertain origin and authenticity, and certainly without value,” Villanueva said at a press briefing.
According to the DFA official, there is no merit in debating “supposed documentary artifacts produced by third parties and presented as posts on social media, especially if these third parties have vested interests and willfully misconstrue and misrepresent established facts.”
Villanueva also reiterated that the claim of the Philippines applies not only to Scarborough Shoal, but also to the Kalayaan Island Group.
“The Philippines likewise consistently exercised and upheld sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction over its archipelago and other territories, including Bajo de Masinloc and the high-tide features of the Kalayaan Island Group (KIG), which is incontrovertible and firmly founded on international law and effective administration.” he said.
Villanueva stressed that the country has exercised its sovereignty through detailed hydrographic surveys, government correspondence and the demolition by Philippine authorities of illegal structures, among others.
“Sovereignty is not merely claimed—it is exercised. The Philippines has done precisely that, consistently and without interruption,” he said.
Within EEZ
Bajo de Masinloc, also known as Panatag Shoal, lies within the long-disputed West Philippine Sea 124 nautical miles off Masinloc, Zambales, and within the country’s 370-kilometer (200-nautical-mile) exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
China has long been claiming sovereignty over the shoal, which it calls “Huangyan Dao.” In 2012, Philippine Air Force personnel found Chinese fishermen collecting marine resources in the shoal, in violation of the fishing rights of Filipinos, according to the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA).
In 2016, an arbitral tribunal at the Hague-based PCA ruled in favor of the Philippines after it declared that China’s claim to most of the South China Sea, including Philippine waters, was without legal basis.
