MANILA, Philippines (AP) – The Philippine government has expressed concern after sighting more than 200 Chinese fishing vessels that it believed to be manned by militias on a reef claimed by both countries in the South China Sea, but did not protest immediately.
A government body overseeing the disputed region said on Saturday night that some 220 Chinese vessels were seen docked at Whitsun Reef on March 7. He released photos of the boats side by side in one of the most disputed areas of the strategic waterway.
The reef, which Manila calls Julian Felipe, is a region of shallow coral and shaped like a boomerang about 175 nautical miles (324 kilometers) west of the city of Bataraza, in the western Philippines’ province of Palawan. It is well within the country’s exclusive economic zone, over which the Philippines “has the exclusive right to exploit or conserve any resources,” the agency said in a statement.
The large number of Chinese vessels is “a concern due to possible overfishing and destruction of the marine environment, as well as risks to the safety of navigation,” he said, although he added that the vessels were not fishing when sighted.
When asked whether the Philippines would file a protest, Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. tweeted, “only if the generals tell me.”
Chinese embassy officials did not immediately comment. China, the Philippines and four other governments are locked in a tense territorial standoff over the resource-rich and occupied waterway for decades.
Critics have repeatedly called on President Rodrigo Duterte, who has cultivated friendly ties with Beijing since taking office in 2016, for not facing China’s aggressive behavior and deciding not to immediately seek Chinese compliance with an international arbitration decision that invalidated the claims Beijing’s history of virtually the entire sea. China has refused to acknowledge the 2016 decision and continues to challenge it.
The arbitration body also ruled that China violated its duty to respect the traditional fishing rights of the Filipinos when Chinese forces blocked them at Scarborough Shoal, in the northwest of the Philippines, in 2012. The Philippines, however, also could not deny Chinese fishermen access to Scarborough, according to the decision. The decision does not specify any other traditional fishing area within the exclusive zone of the Philippines where fishermen from China and other countries can fish.
“When Xi says ‘I’m going to fish’, who can stop him?” Duterte said two years ago, while defending his non-confrontational approach, referring to Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“If I send my marines to drive away Chinese fishermen, I guarantee that none of them will return home alive,” said Duterte, adding that diplomatic negotiations with Beijing allowed the Filipinos to return to disputed fisheries where Chinese forces had previously chased them away.
Duterte sought infrastructure, trade and investment funds from China, which also donated and pledged to deliver more COVID-19 vaccines while the Philippines faces an alarming increase in coronavirus infections.