MANILA – The Philippines has called on China to stop taking actions that endanger the safety of Philippine vessels and aircraft in the contested West Philippine Sea.
The National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS) released a statement after flares were recently deployed from China-occupied Subi (Zamora) Reef in the WPS in August 22.
“We firmly reiterate our call on the government of the People’s Republic of China to immediately cease all provocative and dangerous actions that threaten the safety of Philippine vessels and aircraft engaged in legitimate and regular activities within Philippine territory and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and the right of all vessels and aircraft exercising freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea,” NTF-WPS said.
“Such actions undermine regional peace and security, and further erode the image of the PRC with the international community,” its statement added.
The NTF-WPS said that flares were “unjustifiably deployed” from Zamora Reef as the BFAR was lawfully conducting a maritime domain awareness flight on August 22.
“The People’s Republic of China (PRC) launched flares from Zamora Reef, a militarized illegally-reclaimed artificial island by China, within the territorial sea of Pag-asa Island,” the task force said.
The NTF-WPS said that the BFAR aircraft, a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, in coordination with the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), was monitoring and intercepting poachers encroaching upon the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and the territorial seas of the maritime features constituting the Kalayaan Island Group.
“While the BFAR was conducting the routine patrol, the PRC unjustifiably deployed flares from Zamora Reef,” the NTF-WPS said.
“This same BFAR aircraft also faced harassment from the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) on August 19 during a similar MDA flight near Bajo de Masinloc,” it added.
The task force said the Chinese fighter jet was in no way provoked, “yet its actions demonstrated hazardous intent that jeopardized the safety of the personnel onboard the BFAR aircraft.”
The NTF-WPS said the Philippines remains steadfast in exercising its rights to strengthen maritime domain awareness within our sovereign territory, national airspace, and EEZ, as well as in the high seas, in accordance with United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the 2016 Arbitral Award./PN
