The Philippines will continue to patrol the Spratly Islands in the West Philippine Sea despite China’s call for Manila to stop “illegal provocations” by sending military aircraft near the area.
“We’re gonna continue our patrol because it’s ours,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr said Wednesday on ANC television. “That’s all there is to it.”
Locsin also rejected the reported proposal to place an attaché for the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) in Beijing, saying it would equate to Manila conceding its rights in the West Philippine Sea.
Locsin said establishing a separate office for the PCG at the Philippine Embassy in China would subject activities in the West Philippine Sea to discussion with Chinese authorities instead of an automatic protest.
The existing Philippine defense attaché there would suffice to handle defense issues, he said.
Beijing is “free to say” what it wants over the issue, Locsin said.
“They can call it illegal provocations, you can’t change their minds. They already lost the arbitral award, they wouldn’t accept it. But if that is their choice, it’s a free world. I wouldn’t stop anyone from talking,” he added.
China’s latest remarks came after Manila filed a diplomatic protest over the Chinese Coast Guard’s confiscation of Filipino fishermen’s devices in the West Philippine Sea.
Chinese Foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Li Jian said the Chinese Coast Guard merely acted “in accordance to the law.”
“Philippine Coast Guard wants own attaché in Beijing Embassy. Flat no. We have a Defense attaché for national defense issues. A separate Coast Guard attaché means we concede exclusive sovereignty over our coastal waters so they are now subject to discussion instead of automatic protest,” Locsin said in a tweet Tuesday.
In a separate statement on Wednesday, he said territory and territorial prerogatives are not subject to discussions but only of diplomatic protests.
“I don’t want anyone discussing with his foreign counterpart what naval maneuvers are or are not acceptable,” Locsin wrote.
While Manila and Beijing have fostered friendlier relations under President Rodrigo Duterte, maritime disputes in the South China Sea linger, with Beijing shunning a July 2016 arbitration award that junked its claim over nearly all of the resource-rich waters.
Duterte, who has sought investments and loans from China, will not give “even an inch” of Philippine territory to other countries, his spokesperson Harry Roque said Monday.
“Our government’s policy has been consistent. This unresolved issue on our territory will not be a hindrance for us to push through with our diplomatic relations with China on other matters, such as trade and investment,” Roque said.
On January 14, a Chinese Coast Guard contingent docked in Manila for the “first-ever” formal meeting and maritime exercise between Manila and Beijing.
During high-level talks with the PCG, the two maritime security agencies agreed to boost cooperation, as well as the possibility of conducting joint exercises on maritime security.
The Chinese Coast Guard had been a main figure in some of the DFA’s diplomatic protests in the past with the latest lodged last week after it “illegally confiscated” the fishing gears of Filipino fishermen in Scarborough Shoal.
Last year, Locsin also ordered filing a note verbale against China after the Chinese Coast Guard was spotted patrolling near the Ayungin Shoal, a tear-drop shaped atoll located in the Philippines’ Kalayaan Island Group.