ILLEGAL ACTIONS. Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea Commodore Jay Tarriela (center) says all Chinese actions in the disputed waters are outright violations of international laws. Speaking at the National Security Cluster Communications of the "Bagong Pilipinas" media engagement and workshop at the Philippine Merchant Marine Academy in San Narciso, Zambales on Friday (May 3, 2024), Tarriela said illegal Chinese moves are being exposed by the Philippine government's transparency strategy. (PNA photo by Priam Nepomuceno)
SAN NARCISO, Zambales – All Chinese actions in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) are outright violations of international law, a ranking Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) insisted on Friday.
Commodore Jay Tarriela, PCG spokesperson for the WPS, said maritime security scholars used to call China’s moves as grey zone tactics, or efforts to take control using coercive actions that are shy of armed conflict, but beyond normal diplomatic, economic, and other activities.
"Ang contribution ng ating (The contributions of our) transparency strategy exposed Chinese illegal actions,” he said on the sidelines of the National Security Cluster Communications of the "Bagong Pilipinas" (New Philippines) media engagement and workshop at Philippine Merchant Marine Academy. "Because of our transparency strategy, the Philippine government is no longer considering this as grey zone strategy. We call this an outright violation of international law."
Tarriela said for so many years, China has bullied not just the Filipinos but even Vietnamese, Indonesian and Malaysian fishers in the South China Sea and tries to reclaim islands.
"For us, all of their actions that they are doing there are just basically unlawful actions and they are offenders of the international law."
When asked whether China Coast Guard ships deliberately trained their water cannons on the Philippine flag flying atop the mast of a PCG vessel, Tarriela said that based on their observation, it seems that the Chinese were “targeting the communications equipment of the Filipino craft.”
"We can probably say that (it) could be possible but the objective of the water cannoning nung nakaraang insidente noong (of the water cannoning incident on) April 30 is for them to terminate the mobility of the Coast Guard vessel and BFAR (Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources). And of course, we are relatively dependent sa ating (on our) communication equipment and navigation equipment," Tarriela said.
“The Philippine vessels encountered dangerous maneuvers and obstruction from four China Coast Guard vessels and six Chinese Maritime Militia vessels,” Tarriela said in a statement, referring to the harassment of a “legitimate patrol” near Scarborough Shoal, which is inside the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
The PCG ship sustained “damage to the railing and canopy” but no injuries were reported.
As in previous water cannon incidents, China said Philippine vessels were “intruding” into the waters and their actions were “in accordance with the law.”
Meanwhile, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) spokesperson Undersecretary Teresita Daza said the PCG must file an official report as basis for the next action, whether it would be a diplomatic protest or a summon.
"I’ll just lay the process in DFA. When an incident happens in the waters, we have to have an official report coming from PCG and from other agencies, and also from the National Task Force," she said in the same forum.
"So, we have to rely (on) official result(s), so I’ll have to check whether that (has) already been submitted, and what the report is actually all about." (PNA)
