We cannot blame China. It was the US and Spain that first demarcated the boundaries in the South China Sea
Quite strange is the report made by an American security expert from Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center (GKC) for National Security Innovation, Raymond Powell, through Twitter, alleging that China’s coast guard, on August 8, 2023, fired water cannon at our coast guard in the latter’s attempt to deliver supplies to navy personnel guarding a purposely stranded navy ship Sierra Madre near contested island identified as the “Ayungin Shoal” or Thomas Shoal.
Despite the proximity of the boundary that separates the Philippines from the island of Palawan in what now constitutes the South China Sea, with the edges of the boundary of less than 12 miles under international law, the Philippines, for more than a century, recognized this boundary as legitimate and valid.
Most of those affected were small islands at the periphery of Palawan which were allegedly “discovered” by a Filipino navigator named Tomás Cloma in the 1950s.
Thinking the islands off Palawan were res nullius or not owned by anybody,
Cloma claimed them as his private property and sought to have them titled.
Then President Marcos issued P.D. 1529 making the Kalayaan Group of Islands a municipality of Palawan to prevent Cloma from declaring it his private property.
Our claim in some of the disputed islands in the South China Sea is on the basis that, historically, the area has been the rich fishing ground for our fishermen.
But never can the country claim Thomas Shoal or Ayungin Island as a part of the Philippine archipelago.
The map indicating the Philippine archipelago shows Ayungin Shoal has never been made part of the country.
To fully understand the history behind the conflicting claims, it is imperative to know what this Ayungin Shoal is and to recall some chronological events.
Hence, “Second Thomas Shoal, also known as Ayungin Shoal is an atoll in the Spratly Islands of the South China Sea, 194 kms west of Palawan.
Claimed by several nations but exclusively located in the economic zone of the Philippines, the atoll is currently militarily occupied by several countries.
Located south-east of the Mischief Reef (09°55′N 115°32′E), Second Thomas Shoal is near the center of Dangerous ground in the north-eastern part of the Spratly Islands; there are no settlements north or east of it.
It is a tear-drop shaped atoll, 20 kms long north–south and fringed with coral reefs. The coral rim surrounds a lagoon which has depths of up to 27 meters and is accessible to small boats from the east.
Drying patches are found east and west of the reef rim.
On 12 July 2016, the tribunal of the Permanent Court of Arbitration concluded that ‘Second Thomas Shoal’ is, or in its natural condition was, exposed at low tide and submerged at high tide and, accordingly, has low-tide elevations that do not generate an entitlement to a territorial sea, exclusive economic zone or continental shelf.
Second Thomas Shoal is claimed by the Philippines and China.
The Philippine navy maintains a presence of less than a dozen navy personnel on the 100 meter-long Second World War US-built Philippine Navy landing craft BRP Sierra Madre (LT-57), deliberately made to run aground the atoll in 1999 in response to the Chinese reclamation of Mischief Reef.
The Philippines claims the atoll is part of its continental shelf, while parts of the Spratly group of islands, where Second Thomas Shoal lies, are claimed by China, Brunei, the Philippines, malaysia and Vietnam.
In 2014, the Chinese government asked the Philippines to remove the grounded ship.
Philippine supply ships subsequently avoided Chinese blockades to deliver food, water and other supplies to the stranded garrison.
Chinese coast guard vessels blocked the two attempts to resupply the garrison on March 9, 2014.
Supplies were airdropped to the garrison three days later.
A supply ship with replacement troops successfully reached the atoll on March 29, 2014 by sailing through shallow waters where the PRC vessels, having deeper drafts, were unable to follow.
During the approach, Philippine crew members and troops on the resupply ship waved the peace sign at the pursuing Chinese coast guard crew.
Since then, the Philippine military has been sending monthly relief missions in the form of air-dropped provisions to the troops stationed in the shoal.
This American security adviser, Ray Powell, should not have been given importance by local social media to allow him to influence an elected President on matters involving the country’s national security which for obvious reason involves our foreign policy.
This explains why the young Marcos considers the incident involving the hosing of our coast guard by China as a grey area indicating that either the West wants him to remain ignorant of the situation and promote a proxy war in the South China Sea.
A reaction by the President could directly involve the country which the US wants us to do while not directly involving the US in a conflict.
Had we reacted aggressively to Powell’s report, the spraying of water cannon to our coast guard cutter could have officially started a proxy war in the Ayungin Shoal with PBBM playing ignorant of the incident.
Many Filipinos to this day are wondering why our territorial waters in the South China Sea have been demarcated too close to Palawan that they even violated our 12-mile territorial waters where our oil and natural gas are found and where service contracts have been awarded to private companies.
Instead of the Philippines reacting violently against illegal occupation of Vietnam and Malaysia in the Thomas Shoal area, it seems that China is directly poking at our nose, even directly threatening to evict us in the area.
This is an unnecessary taunting against us by a mighty neighbor, China.
This has happened because since the time BBM came to power in 2020, he has become more antagonistic to China to a point of canceling some of the country’s worthwhile economic and developmental projects with them.
Many suspect the US is purposely doing this to make the EDCA bases in the Philippines viable and for the fact PBBM was installed by an unabashed pro-American stooge.
Instead of being antagonistic to China, Vietnam extended peace offering to cultivate economic and developmental projects which it hopes could enhance their own security while Malaysia is mainly concentrating to mind its own business, knowing its position is the most tenuous among the claimant countries in the South China Sea.
Particularly, the US has remained silent because the Philippines was excluded in the Treaty of Paris.
Only the US and Spain signed the Treaty even if the demarcation of the Philippine boundary in the South China Sea was wholly disadvantageous to the country.
We cannot blame China. It was the US and Spain that first demarcated the boundaries in the South China Sea.
The Philippines was a non-participant in that treaty, and is now made to observe the boundaries made by the contracting parties.
(rpkapunan@gmail.com)