Vowing to defend the country “up to the last soldier standing,” Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin on Thursday said China had clearly intruded into Philippine territory when it sent a frigate to escort its fishing vessels in Ayungin Shoal.
The Department of Tourism (DOT) is turning to other markets to fill hotel rooms on Boracay Island that have been left empty by cancellations of Taiwanese bookings, coming as fallout from a diplomatic row between Taiwan and the Philippines over the fatal shooting of a Taiwanese fisherman by Filipino coast guards two weeks ago.
The Philippines on Thursday warned that territorial rows in Asia are “causing considerable tension that could lead to conflict” as several countries face off with China over island claims.
The Philippines vowed Thursday to “defend what is ours” as part of a stand-off over a Chinese warship circling a West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) reef which is occupied by Filipino Marines.
A handful of Marines living on a World War II-era ship that is grounded on a remote, tiny reef is the Philippines’ last line of defense against China’s efforts to control most of the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea).
The Philippines’ only recourse in the territorial dispute with China is to appeal to world opinion even if the country has already taken the issue to an arbitral tribunal under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos), a senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court said.
The Philippines is weighing what course of action to take in the wake of the latest Chinese incursion in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) even as the country asserted its capability to defend its exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
Along the northwestern coast of Luzon, poor children with claw hammers clamber aboard an abandoned fishing vessel to pry loose and steal rusty nails from its deck. It’s become a familiar sight in villages where some fishermen have been forced to give up their livelihoods since China took control of their fishing haven last year.
Along the northwestern Philippine coast, poor children with claw hammers clamber aboard an abandoned fishing vessel to pry loose and steal rusty nails from its deck. It’s become a familiar sight in villages where some fishermen have been forced to give up their livelihoods since China took control of their fishing haven last year.
Our Scarborough Shoal conflict with the People’s Republic of China (Big China) – which ignited on April 9, 2012 when Chinese fishing vessels were caught poaching in Philippine waters by the Philippine Navy – has taken a back seat to a potentially graver conflict in the West Philippine Sea, this time with Taiwan, also known as the Republic of China (Little China), a conflict which was sparked on May 9, 2013 when the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spotted a Taiwanese fishing boat poaching in Philippine waters off Balintang Island.
President Aquino on Tuesday announced a $1.8-billion military upgrade to help defend the country’s maritime territory against “bullies,” amid an ever-worsening dispute with China.
Faced with territorial disputes and worries of external and internal threats, President Benigno Aquino III on Tuesday claimed that the Philippines can fight back and defend itself within its bounds.
