MANILA, KOMPAS.com – Filipina on Sunday (21/3/2021) accused China surrounded them, after 220 militia ships were spotted near the disputed cay on South China Sea.
The Philippine coast guard detected the ships in line formation at Whitsun Reef boomerang-shaped, about 320 km west of Palawan Island on March 7.
“We call on China to stop this action and synchronously withdraw those ships that violate our maritime rights and violate the boundaries of our sovereign territory,” Philippine Defense Minister Delfin Lorenzana was quoted as saying. AFP.
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“This is a clear provocative action to militarize the region. This is an area within the Philippine Exclusive Economic Zone,” he continued.
Lorenzana continued, the government is thinking about the right actions to protect Filipino fishermen, the country’s marine resources, and maintain peace and stability in the region.
Meanwhile Philippine Foreign Minister Teodoro Locsin wrote on Twitter that he had filed a diplomatic protest over the arrival of the hundreds of ships.
Until this news was uploaded, the Chinese Embassy in Manila had not yet commented.
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The Philippine task force monitoring the South China Sea announced Saturday that it had detected about 220 Chinese maritime militia ships earlier this month.
“Despite the clear weather at that time, the Chinese ships that gathered on the coral island did not show any real fishing activity,” the task force said. AFP.
The United States has previously accused China of using maritime militias to intimidate, coerce and threaten other countries over claims to nearly the entire South China Sea.
This resource-rich sea route is also being contested by several countries, including the Philippines.
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Philippine relations with China improved under the leadership of President Rodrigo Duterte, in pursuit of greater economic cooperation.
However, Duterte still cannot stop China’s ambition to control almost the entire South China Sea.
Lorenzana, on the other hand, was more straightforward. In August 2020 he accused China of illegally occupying the maritime territory of the Philippines.
His comments come amid a new dispute over the Scarborough Shoal, which China captured from the Philippines in 2012.
Earlier in 2019, the Philippines reported that hundreds of Chinese ships were seen near Pag-asa island, also known as Thitu.
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