PH mulls leasing foreign ships to expand West Philippine Sea presence

WPS composite image from Inquirer file, AFP and Reuters photo

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is open to leasing ships from other countries to expand its presence in the West Philippine Sea, said the National Maritime Council (NMC) on Thursday.

“Actually parang stop-gap measure–habang wala pa talaga tayong atin, it’s an area, it’s an option na siguro mag-arkila tayo,” said NMC spokesperson Alexander Lopez in a Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon briefing on Thursday.

(Actually, it’s like a stop-gap measure–while we don’t really have our own yet, it’s an area, it’s an option that we might lease.)

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The idea was initially proposed on Wednesday by Senator Francis Tolentino, who suggested that leasing ships could help strengthen the country’s presence in the West Philippine Sea.

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But Lopez said the government had already been considering the prospect of leasing ships even before.

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“Maganda po ‘yung suggestion ni Sen. Tolentino, in fact pinagiisipan na po ‘yon dati,” he said.

(Sen. Tolentino’s suggestion is good, in fact we already considered that before.)

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The Philippines has been embroiled in a long-standing territorial dispute with China, which claimed ownership of most of the South China Sea—including the West Philippine Sea—through its so-called 10-dash line, despite the area being within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

However, China’s claims were effectively invalidated by a July 2016 international tribunal ruling, stemming from a case filed by Manila in 2013.

Despite the ruling, China has continued to deliberately ignore it, consistently encroaching on the Philippines’ EEZ.

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