PHL protests inclusion of territories in new Chinese fishing law

By MICHAELA DEL CALLAR

The Philippines on Tuesday protested China’s new fisheries law in the disputed South China Sea, saying areas covered by the regulation included Manila-claimed territories.

Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez issued the statement of protest at a press briefing after receiving China’s response to a Philippine query on its new law.

In its reply, Beijing said the new regulation “is an implementation of China’s fisheries law and covers their jurisdiction of Hainan province.”

To assert its claim over the South China Sea, China in 2012 established a new city called Sansha under its southern Hainan province to politically administer areas it is claiming in the disputed waters, including those within Philippine sovereignty.

Hernandez said the Philippines does not recognize the regulation and called on China to conform to international law, specifically the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

“The Department of Foreign Affairs reiterates its strong protest which we have made on June 28, 2012 since the jurisdiction of Hainan province included the Philippine territories and impinges on the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone,” Hernandez said.

China’s regulation requires foreign fishing vessels to obtain approval from Chinese regional authorities before fishing or surveying in a large portion of the South China Sea.

“This statement is already our protest and we also do that as part of our diplomatic efforts,” Hernandez said.

Manila opposes the establishment of Sansha city as the extent of the city's jurisdiction “violates Philippine territorial sovereignty over the Kalayaan Island Group (KIG) and Bajo de Masinloc,” also known as Scarborough Shoal.

Sansha City, Manila added, infringes on Philippine sovereign rights over the waters and continental shelf of the West Philippine Sea – a name adopted by the Philippines for the disputed body of water to indicate its claim over areas within its EEZ.

China claims the South China Sea nearly in its entirety and the cluster of islands, reefs and atolls further south that’s called the Spratlys. Other claimants are Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

All claimants have stationed military troops in their territories in the vast sea, said to be sitting atop huge oil and gas deposits, except for Brunei.

The KIG is a group of Philippine-claimed islands facing the South China Sea. Pag-asa Island, a 37-hectare island equipped with an airstrip, commercial communications tower, and power generators, is the largest of these territories.

Manila said both the KIG and Bajo de Masinloc are within the Philippines’s 200-nautical mile EEZ as provided by the UNCLOS.

The Philippines, China and 162 other nations are signatories to this treaty, which governs the use of offshore areas and sets territorial limits of coastal states.

Manila challenged China’s claim before a The Hague-based arbitral tribunal, but Beijing refused to join the proceedings, saying the Philippine case is baseless and lacks legal merit.

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