Category: Foreign Affairs

Bajo de Masinloc crucial to China’s claim of whole South China Sea

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By ELLEN TORDESILLAS, VERA Files
(Conclusion)

Chinese vessel with giant clams taken from Bajo de Masinloc waters

The permanent stationing of three of its ships in Bajo de Masinloc is part of China’s “creeping invasion” of disputed territories in the South China Sea, a high-ranking Philippine government official said.

Bajo de Masinloc is Huangyan island to China, which has time and again reiterated “that Huangyan Island and Nansha Islands have always been parts of Chinese territory and that the People’s Republic of China has indisputable sovereignty over these islands and their adjacent waters.”

“The claim to territory sovereignty over Huangyan Island and Nansha Islands by the Philippines is illegal and invalid,” China says.

Nansha is what the Chinese call the Spratly Islands, a group of islands on the South China Sea, parts of which are being claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

China’s presence on Bajo de Masinloc is also an alarming reminder to the Philippines of how Mischief Reef came under Chinese control 18 years ago.

In the early 1990s, China had built structures it said were just fishermen’s shelters on Mischief Reef. Through the years, China added installations on the island, including a radar system.

Philippine and U.S Air Force reconnaissance revealed military structures on Mischief Reef belying Chinese claims. In January 1995, the captain of a Philippine fishing boat reported that he was arrested and detained for a week by the Chinese when he ventured into Mischief Reef.

Since then Mischief Reef has been under the control of China and inaccessible to Filipinos.

A paper titled “Geopolitics of Scarborough Shoal” written by Francois-Xavier Bonnet of the Bangkok-based Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia (IRASEC) explains the importance of Huangyan Island to the bigger and long-term objective of China.

Bonnet said Huangyan Island/Bajo de Masinloc is crucial to China’s claim over the Zhongsha Qundao islands which is vital in its controversial “nine-dash line map.”

A map without coordinates. Thanks to Yahoo.

The map is called “nine-dash line” or “nine-dotted line” because it shows a series of nine dashes or dotted lines forming a ring around the South China Sea area, which China claims is part of its territory. The area includes the Spratlys group and Bajo de Masinloc.

The “nine-dash line map” puts 90 percent of the whole South China Sea under Chinese jurisdiction.

The map does not have coordinates, but was submitted by China to the United Nations on May 7, 2009.

verafiles-9dashBonnet explained, “The Zhongsha Qundao is composed of Macclesfield Bank, Truro Shoal, Saint Esprit Shoal, Dreyer Shoal and Scarborough Shoal. All these banks and shoals, except for Scarborough Shoal, are under several meters of water even during low tide. Chinese policymakers know too well that without Huangyan island, the chance of their ownership over Zhongsha Qundao recognized is nil.”

Bonnet said, “The stakes are high. If China loses Huangyan/Scarborough, it will lose Zhongsha Qundao, which could be divided by the EEZs of the neighboring countries or placed under the regime of the high seas. By consequence, China’s entire claim to the South China Sea supported by the U-shape line would be moot and academic.”

Last June, China elicited international concern when it established Sansha City on Yongxing Island in the southernmost province of Hainan. Sansha City’s territory includes the Spratlys, the Paracels and Macclesfield Bank.

Immediately after establishing Sansha City, China’s Central Military Commission, its most powerful military body, approved the deployment of a garrison of soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army to guard disputed islands.

China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs said in June that putting Macclesfield Bank, the Paracels and the Spratlys under Sansha would “further strengthen China’s administration and development” of the three island groups.

The Philippines protested the establishment of Sansha City, specifically the inclusion of a part of its territory, Macclesfield Bank, one of the largest underwater atolls in the world, covering an area of 6,500 square kilometers.

Former foreign undersecretary and Philippine Permanent Representative to the United Nations Lauro Baja said there is no doubt that China has Bajo de Masinloc in its long-term territorial design.

Incidents of Philippine Navy ships apprehending Chinese fishermen in the vicinity of Bajo de Masinloc is common. In 1999, the Philippine Navy even “accidentally” sank a Chinese fishing boat. But the conflict never went beyond the standard diplomatic protests.

Former Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon recalled one apprehension in 1998 that was a subject of a diplomatic protest by China involving a young navy officer named Antonio Trillanes IV, who would would later on become a senator and play a controversial role in the tension between the Philippines and China over the disputed shoal.

But Philippine encounters with the Chinese in Baja de Masinloc took a different turn on April 8, 2012, when the BRP Gregorio Del Pilar, the Philippines lone modern warship acquired from the United States, arrested Chinese fishing vessels in the area.

Philippine military officials said BRP Gregorio del Pilar was due for preventive maintenance servicing in Subic at that time but was redirected to Northern Luzon as contingency undertaking for an impending North Korea rocket launch.

The combat ship was also ordered to verify reports about the presence of the Chinese fishing vessels in Bajo de Masinloc. They arrested Chinese fishermen in eight fishing boats caught with sizable quantities of endangered marine species, corals, live sharks and giant clams.

Looking back, officials say the April 8, 2012 incident gave China an excuse to occupy the area.

China immediately deployed three Chinese Marine Surveillance (CMS) ships to Bajo de Masinloc to rescue their fishermen and added more than 80 vessels as the standoff dragged on.

The Philippines later withdrew BRP Gregorio del Pilar, which was replaced by a Philippine Coast Guard ship and a research vessel by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in observance of “white to white,” referring to civilian ships, and “gray to gray,” meaning navy-to-navy rules of engagement.

The standoff that lasted 57 days spilled over to the economic front with China rejecting inferior quality bananas from the Philippines and cancellation of Philippine-bound Chinese tour groups.

It was only broken upon the insistence of the United States State Department that the issue be resolved because President Barack Obama did not want it included in the agenda of his June 8, 2012 meeting with President Benigno Aquino III at the White House.

With the breakdown of communication between the straight-talking Philippine Foreign Secretary Albert Del Rosario and Chinese Ambassador Ma Keqing in Manila, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell proposed to Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Fu Ying in Washington D.C. that Chinese and Philippine vessels withdraw simultaneously from the disputed shoal.

By that time, Trillanes had entered the picture and was directly negotiating between Beijing and Malacañang to help de-escalate the tension.

Hours before Aquino left for London and Washington D.C. on June 4, 2012, Malacañang announced the pullout of Philippine ships from Bajo de Masinloc “consistent with our agreement with the Chinese government on withdrawal of all vessels from the shoal’s lagoon to defuse the tensions in the area.”

Diplomatic sources said Fu Ying never committed complete withdrawal of their ships from Bajo de Masinloc as there was resistance from the People’s Liberation Army, an important sector in China’s power structure.

Del Rosario said when he met with Fu Ying during her Manila visit last Oct. 19, “I was very direct in saying that the presence of their ships is in clear violation of our sovereign rights, and they must withdraw their ships at the earliest possible time.”

Fu Ying did not respond, he said.

Chinese ‘occupation’ of Bajo de Masinloc could reduce PH territorial waters by 38 percent

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By ELLEN TORDESILLAS, VERA Files
(First of two parts)

Chinese Surveillance Ships sighted

The Philippines is at a loss over China’s declaration its ships will stay permanently in Bajo de Masinloc, a declaration some experts say could lead to the Philippines losing 38 percent of its territorial waters.

Bajo de Masinloc, a triangular-shaped coral reef formation that has several rocks encircling a lagoon, is located 124 nautical miles west of Masinloc town in Zambales in the northwestern part of the Philippines.

“The shoal is under virtual occupation by China,” said former foreign undersecretary and former Philippine Permanent Representative to the United Nations Lauro Baja.

Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario confirmed this, saying, “In a subministerial consultation, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Fu Ying had said to our people that China’s presence was permanent and they had no intention of withdrawing their ships from the vicinity of Bajo de Masinloc.”

The National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA) says Bajo de Masinloc has an area of about 120 square kilometers. It is also referred to as Panatag (calm in Pilipino) by fishermen who seek refuge in the area during stormy weather.

Its international name is Scarborough shoal after the tea-carrying British boat Scarborough which sank in the vicinity in 1784. China also claims ownership of the shoal which is 467 nautical miles away from its mainland, and refers to it as Huangyan Island.

Republic Act 9522, which defines the country’s archipelagic baseline, includes Bajo de Masinloc as part of Philippine territory. The law classifies it as a regime of islands under Art. 121 of the Law of the Sea Convention (LOSC), which means it generates its own territorial sea, exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and continental shelf.

Under UNCLOS, “an island is a naturally formed area of land, surrounded by water, which is above water at high tide.”

An island generates its own maritime regimes, which are 12 nautical miles (nm) for territorial sea, 24 nm for contiguous zone, 200 nm for EEZ and 200 nm continental shelf.

Under this definition, the Chinese claim over Baja de Masinloc means the Philippines risks losing not only the 120-square-kilometer strategically vital reef formation but also some 494,000 square kilometers EEZ, representing 38 per cent of the country’s EEZ.

One of the Philippines’ options to protest the Chinese encroachment is going to the United Nations International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), the arbitration arm of UNCLOS, of which the Philippines and China are signatories.

Legal experts say the Philippines can ask the ITLOS, which does not deal with territorial disputes, to declare Bajo de Masinloc as a rock rather than an island.

UNCLOS said, “Rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf.”

Retired Philippine Navy Commodore Rex Robles, who has been to the area a few times for gunnery practice, declares that “Panatag shoal is a rock.”

“It cannot support human life. It is not an island,” he concludes.

Lawyer Romel Bagares, executive director of Center for International Law (Philippines), said RA 9522 “does not actually specify whether Bajo de Masinloc consists just of uninhabitable rocks or is capable of economic life pursuant to Art 121 of the UNCLOS. This could be one way of arguing ITLOS has jurisdiction, especially as to the interpretation of provisions. It’s a pragmatic approach, no doubt.”

What is obvious, Bagares said, is that RA 9522 assumes that the shoal is part of Philippine territory in the fullest sense of the term.

Del Rosario said, “To the extent that their three ships are within our exclusive economic zone, this is in gross violation of the DOC and UNCLOS.”

DOC is the Declaration of Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea signed in 2002 by members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, four of them part claimants to islands in the South China Sea, and China. UNCLOS is the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Baja said, “When our ships withdrew from Bajo de Masinloc in June and now (we) could not access the area, the shoal became under virtual occupation by China. “

Baja, who drafted the DOC with Malaysia’s Abdul Kadir, also said Chinese occupation of the disputed shoal has changed the status quo, contrary to the DOC.

The DOC states: “The Parties undertake to exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities that would complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace and stability including, among others, refraining from action of inhabiting on the presently uninhabited islands, reefs, shoals, cays, and other features and to handle their differences in a constructive manner.”

Baja said China is exercising what the International Court of Justice (ICJ) calls “effectivités.” “This is the basis of the Court’s decision on the Ligatan Sipadan case where the court awarded the area to Malaysia over Indonesia. Also the same principle in the case between Chile and Peru and between Nicaragua and Guatemala,” he said.

In 2002, the ICJ awarded sovereignty over Pulau Ligitan and Pulau Sipadan, two very small islands located in the Celebes Sea, off the northeast coast of the island of Borneo, to Malaysia against Indonesia giving weight to the former’s actual and continued exercise of authority over the islands.

Baja said, “We must act and interact before we lose the territory by default and/or estoppel.”

Seven months after China’s occupation of Bajo de Masinloc, the Philippines is still “reviewing” its options.

Asked about the Philippines’ response to China’s declaration it has no intentions of pulling out their ships from Panatag shoal, Del Rosario said, “We are reviewing all our options in accordance with our three track approach encompassing the political, legal and diplomatic means.”

President Benigno Aquino III has refused to discuss publicly the Philippine efforts on Bajo de Masinloc because he said doing so would be “giving the other side a preview of everything that we will do.”

He said, though, in October at a forum by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines that the matter “is still being studied by our consultants.”

Aquino added, “There are several law firms that we are consulting, conversant and very well thought of and experts in international law, to precisely chart the course of how we will utilize the legal procedures in international law to advance our claims.”

Experts point to two options available to the Philippines: the military option—which is not really an option considering the inferior state of the Philippine Navy compared with China’s naval might—and the legal option.

(To be continued)

Aquino confirms appointment of Basilio as ambassador to China

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President Aquino confirmed the appointment of Foreign Undersecretary for Policy, Erlinda Basilio as ambassador to China.

Following the is the transcript of the “ambush” interview”:

President Aquino Q: Sir, how soon will we name our next ambassador to China? Usec. (Erlinda) Basilio has been floated as a replacement.

PRESIDENT AQUINO: Well, as soon as we will submit her name to the Commission on Appointments. Once they confirm (her), therefore, we can seek the—the French term was ‘agrément’—parang the agreement for the designation of Usec. Basilio as our new ambassador to China.

Q: So you’re confirming it is Ambassador Basilio?

PRESIDENT AQUINO: Yes.


Q: Sir, what were the main considerations for her appointment?

PRESIDENT AQUINO: Basically the high recommendations by our Secretary of Foreign Affairs given her wealth of experience; given that she’s already the senior undersecretary parang that sends a signal of how important our relations are with China and how serious we are of trying to achieve an understanding with them.


Q: The appointment will be made when, sir?

PRESIDENT AQUINO: Well, I’m awaiting the papers from the Executive Secretary’s office.
Here is Sec. del Rosario’s statement on the nomination of Usec. Basilio.: ”We are endeavoring to significantly enhance our bilateral relations w china, and we are counting on our amb nominee, usec erlinda basilio, to play a major role in achieving our defined objectives. Our nominee is a seasoned senior diplomat who brings with her experience and expertise in dealing with allcurrent matters pertaining to our re-lations with china. She moreover enjoys the confidence of the President. Albert”

Following is the statement of Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario:

”We are endeavoring to significantly enhance our bilateral relations w china, and we are counting on our amb nominee, usec erlinda basilio, to play a major role in achieving our defined objectives. Our nominee is a seasoned senior diplomat who brings with her experience and expertise in dealing with allcurrent matters pertaining to our re-lations with china. She moreover enjoys the confidence of the President. “

Erlinda Basilio expected to be named ambassador to China

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Calm demeanor masks toughness

President Benigno S. Aquino III is expected to name Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Policy Erlinda Basilio as ambassador to China, reliable sources at the Department of Foreign Affairs said.

Malacanang said last Friday the President would announce Monday the new ambassador to China who will replace Sonia Brady,71, who suffered a stroke in Beijing last August.

Malacanang, however, made no such announcement, preoccupied it was with monitoring typhoon “Pablo.”

DFA sources said Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario submitted to the President three names, all career officers, for the post that is considered the most challenging in Philippine foreign affairs today.

Basilio has always been in the list of candidates for ambassador to China after Aquino family friend Domingo Lee withdrew from the position he was nominated for (he was never confirmed by the Commission on Appointments) in the wake of the standoff at the Panatag shoal, also known as Scarborough shoal, 123 nautical miles off Zambales in Central Luzon. But she has made herself valuable as undersecretary for policy in the home office.

Although some are of the opinion that a younger ambassador is needed in Beijing because of the intense demands of the job, physically and mentally, sources said the President decided on the more senior Basilio, 68. Having retired from the foreign service, Basilio is a political appointee.

DFA insiders say the President has always been comfortable with the soft-spoken Basilio and believes her calm demeanor would be an asset in dealing with China, especially at this time when the conflicting claims over the West Philippine Sea and, more recently, Panatag shoal have strained relations between the two countries.

A competent ambassador in Beijing is important at this time when China is undergoing leadership changes. Last month, Xi Jinping took over the presidency from President Hu Jintao. He also took over from Hu the chairmanship of the Central Military Commission an influential post that oversees major national security and military affairs.

Premier Wen Jiabao is also expected to turn over the position to Li Keqiang in March.

In the past several days, China did two things that alarmed countries already wary of the rising superpower from Asia. First was the issuance of new Chinese passports bearing the universally rejected 9-dash-line map.

The nine-dash-line is a map showing a U-shaped line enclosing almost the whole of the South China Sea which China claims belongs to them. The map has been widely protested by several countries including the Philippines and criticized in the international community.

The DFA said the Philippines will not stamp its visas on the Chinese e-passport with the 9-dash line map. It will instead put its approval stamp in a separate visa application form.

Another alarming report from China was the announcement by the Hainan police that starting on Jan 1, 2013, they will board and search ships which enter into what China considers its territorial waters in the disputed South China Sea, the China Daily reported.

Hainan is in the South China Sea. Several islands in the area, referred by the Philippines as West Philippine Sea, are claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

Considered an Asia hand having been assigned in Japan and held various Asia-related post in the department including as Assistant Secretary for Asia and Pacific Affairs, Basilio would be a re-assuring presence in the Philippine embassy in Beijing.

A graduate of the University of the Philippines (Bachelor of Arts major in Political Science and Masters in Asian Studies), Basilio joined the foreign service in 1970. She served as ambassador to Sweden and permanent representative to the Philippine Mission to the United Nations in Geneva.
Basilio was married to the late Norberto Basilio, also a diplomat. They have a daughter, Amelia Clarissa, who lives in Sweden.

She was Undersecretary for Policy of former Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo during the Arroyo administration and continued in this position under the Aquino administration.

Basilio served as acting secretary of foreign affairs when Romulo went on an indefinite leave of absence in February 2011 before Del Rosario was appointed foreign secretary

PH should face up to the reality ‘When China rules the world’

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Martin Jacques and Sen. Alan Cayetano, one of the sponsors of the forum.

While President Aquino was making waves in the summit of Asean leaders and their dialogue partners in Cambodia with his statement urging the United States to speak up on the South China Sea conflict which was anathema to China, visiting journalist and China expert, Martin Jacques, was telling a rapt audience at the Manila Intercon, “I don’t think it would serve the Philippine well to think that the United States will help” in the territorial conflict with China.

“I am not arguing that the Philippines give up its claims, but a way has to be found to deal with these questions, a way that does not involve derailing or poisoining its relationship with China because it will not get anywhere,” he said.

Jacques is the author of the 2009 bestseller, When China Rules the World, which asserts that “by 2027 China will overtake the United States as the world’s largest economy, and by 2050 its economy will be twice as large as that of the United States.”

In the book, Jacques, a columnist in the British publication, The Guardian, is a visiting senior research fellow at the London School of Economics, IDEAS, a centre for the study of international affairs, diplomacy and grand strategy. He is also a visiting professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing, and a fellow of the Transatlantic Academy, Washington DC.

Jacques said leaning on the U.S. in the conflict will not get the Philippines anywhere. “It will just put you in a sticky situation.”

Jacques said China has not “handled itself well” in the South China Sea which the Philippines refers to as West Philippine Sea.

He attributes the Chinese lack of “one voice” to the various agencies involved namely: the fisheries protection, coastal, state-owned oil corporation, the local government, and the Chinese Navy.

“The Chinese have not gotten its act together. But here’s one thing I will say, the Chinese will not go to war over these islands,” he said. South China Sea is being claimed wholly by China with its 9-dash line map while parts of the area also being claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia , Brunei and Taiwan.

But Jacques said it’s a different matter with Senkaku (Diaoyu to the Chinese) islands which China is disputing with Japan because of “failure of Japan to apologize” for atrocities done during the World War II.

A rapt audience

He advised the Philippines “to develop a strategic relations with China” despite the conflicting territorial claims citing Malaysia which maintains a “warm relationship” with China despite conflicting territorial claims in South China Sea.

“Don’t lose the perspective, the big picture…Smart governments think strategically, they have a sense of the future and have a sense of what to do, know its priorities,” he said.

In his book, he addressed the concern how to deal with the rising global power: “For perhaps the next half-century, it seems unlikely that China will be particularly aggressive. History will continue to weigh very heavily on how it handles its growing power, counselling caution and restraint. On the other hand, as China becomes more self-confident, a millennia-old sense of superiority will be increasingly evident in Chinese attitudes. But rather than being imperialistic in the traditional Western sense – through this will, over time, become a growing feature as it acquires the interests and instincts of a superpower – China will be characterized by a strongly hierarchical view of the world, embodying the belief that it represents a higher form of civilization than any other…

“The size of population and the longevity of its civilization mean that China will always have a different attitude towards it place in the world from Europe or the United States. China has always constituted itself as, and believed itself to be, universal. That is the meaning of the Middle Kingdom mentality. In an important sense, China does not aspire to run the world because it already believes itself to be the centre of the world, this being its neutral role and position. And this attitude is likely to strengthen as China becomes a major global power.

“As a consequence, it may prove to be rather less overly aggressive that the West has been, but that does not mean that it will be less assertive or less determined to impose its will and leave its imprint. It might do this in a different way, however, though its deeply held belief in its own inherent superiority and the hierarchy of relations that necessarily and naturally flow from this.”

Reactors Chito Sta Romana and Clarita Carlos

No stranger to Southeast Asia, having been married to a Malaysian-Indian lawyer and lived in Hongkong, this was Jacques’ first visit to the Philippines. (Jacques’ wife, Hari Veriah, died in 2000 in a Hongkong hospital due to negligence and racism, he said. )

JB Baylon, one of the founders of Pilipinas 2020 that sponsored the forum on “When China Rules the World”, related Jacques’ Philippine connection.

In 1999, Marin and Hari, while living in Hongkong hired a Filipina nanny named Christine to help raise their newborn son Ravi.

JB said, “ Hari apparently liked Christine that she promised the nanny that this would be her last job since the Jacques family would take care of her and send her to school.”

“Unfortunately in 2000 Hari died in HK. Martin asked Christine whether she was still interested to be nanny to Ravi and she was.

“A year or so later still devastated by his loss, Martin decided to return to London with Ravi. He asked Christine if she would be interested to continue working as a nanny in London, and she agreed. So Martin worked on the proper papers.

“In London, Martin reminded Christine of his wife’s promise to her and said he would do what he could to fulfill it. She showed interest in going to school and eventually went to nursing school.

“Today, 14 years later, Christine is now a nurse. But she remains part of the Jacques household as nanny to the now 14-year old Ravi!”