Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 11) — Legal and security experts urged the Philippine government to conduct joint patrols with allies coinciding with the next resupply mission to Ayungin Shoal to exercise “our own rights” in areas within the country’s exclusive economic zone in the West Philippine Sea.
“We can have joint patrols with the US at the same time [as the next resupply mission to the Ayungin Shoal]. We can calibrate it,” former Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said in a forum on Thursday.
Carpio said Malaysia and Indonesia have surveyed and drilled in the contested waterway despite warnings from the China Coast Guard that the area falls within Beijing’s nine-dash line claim.
“They sent their Navy together with the survey ship and the drilling ship, and, at the same time, the US and Australia conducted naval drills in the same area, that’s for Malaysia. For Indonesia, the US aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan happened to pass by,” he explained.
On Aug. 5, the Chinese coast guard blocked and fired water cannons at Philippine vessels including a Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) ship en route to Ayungin Shoal in the West Philippine Sea. It was not the first time that it happened.
The PCG said its vessels were escorting local boats chartered by the Armed Forces of the Philippines to deliver food and supplies to military troops stationed in BRP Sierra Madre.
Carpio said Ayungin Shoal — where BRP Sierra Madre has been aground since 1999 — is one of the “flashpoints” in the Philippines-China relationship.
Dindo Manhit, president of the think tank Stratbase ADR Institute, also said in the forum that the Philippines “should not be deterred” from sending supplies to troops at the BRP Sierra Madre and improving the vessel.
“What’s happening now, they’re [China] stopping us from moving forward. Our supply ships should really push through,” Manhit said.
“This is where we can maximize joint patrols and be shepherded by allies and friends during the resupply. Not to cause war but simply to exercise our own rights based on international law. Our military facility is within our Exclusive Economic Zone,” he added.
RELATED: PH-US finalizing joint patrols in WPS – NSC official
Raymond Powell, a security expert and former United States Air Force official, said the BRP Sierra Madre on Ayungin Shoal is the “most vulnerable outpost” in the entire South China Sea that needs reinforcement.
“It’s vulnerable not just because of how few people are there and their inability to defend themselves but the fact that their outpost is deteriorating and will ultimately succumb to time and the weather and the elements,” Powell said.
“That will happen unless the Philippines, with its US allies are able to come up with some other solution to repairing or replacing, somehow lifting, circumventing, and defeating the ongoing Chinese blockade,” he added.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has claimed that the Philippines made a commitment to remove the vessel from Ayungin Shoal, but has yet to act on it.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he was not aware of any agreement and added, “If there does exist such an agreement, I rescind that agreement now.”
RELATED: Malaya: No promise made to remove BRP Sierra Madre from Ayungin Shoal
