China Coast Guard ships (background L and R) are seen past the Philippine Coast Guard ship BRP Cape Engano (C), as photographed from the BRP Cabra during a supply mission to Sabina Shoal in disputed waters of the South China Sea on August 26, 2024. – Sailors aboard two Philippine Coast Guard vessels crashed through South China Sea waves trying to bring food and other supplies to colleagues holed up inside a remote ring of reefs, as Chinese ships shadowed them. (Photo by JAM STA ROSA / AFP)
MANILA — The Philippines would continue to defend its territorial integrity, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) after Beijing warned it would “crush” any foreign incursion into what it claimed to be its territory in the South China Sea, the National Security Council (NSC) said on Thursday.
NSC assistant director Gen. and spokesperson Jonathan Malaya told the Inquirer the government’s position in the South China Sea was consistent with the national interest, international law, particularly the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and the 2016 arbitral ruling that invalidated China’s sweeping claims to the South China Sea.
A report by the Agence France-Presse said Chinese Army Lt. Gen. He Lei told journalists that Beijing hopes the vital waterway would “remain a sea of peace.”
Chinese warning
But he warned that “if the United States moves its pawns behind the scenes, if it pushes countries to the front line or if the United States itself ends up on the front line, then we in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army … will never have any patience.”
Responding to this, Malaya said: “We do not feel alluded to. The Philippines is not and will never be a pawn of the United States.”
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“As a sovereign nation, the Philippines will resolutely defend its territorial integrity, sovereign rights and jurisdiction,” he said.
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During the latest bilateral consultation mechanism between the Philippines and China in Beijing, the Asian superpower demanded that Manila withdraw its vessels from Escoda (Sabina) Shoal.
But Rear Adm. Roy Vincent Trinidad, Philippine Navy spokesperson for WPS, said the government was ready in case China tows the BRP Teresa Magbanua from the shoal.
Magbanua has been stationed at Escoda since April 18 this year in response to the reported Chinese reclamation activities in the area.
“There are contingencies in place that our Western Command already knows if in case this would escalate,” Trinidad said.
On Wednesday, delegates from the Department of Foreign Affairs and China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs met in Beijing to discuss ways to reduce tensions in WPS.
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Foreign Undersecretary Maria Theresa Lazaro and Foreign Vice Minister Chen Xiaodong had a “frank and candid exchange of views” about the maritime conflict, according to the DFA.
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