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.
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.
The Philippines has formally protested the “provocative and illegal” presence of Chinese government ships around a shoal within the Philippine continental shelf in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), asserting exclusive rights to use resources within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
The Philippines Saturday rejected Taiwan’s allegations that its coast guards had intentionally murdered a Taiwanese fisherman whose death has triggered a major diplomatic spat.
Facing yet another flashpoint over disputes in the West Philippine Sea, the country’s top diplomat said Saturday that the Philippine maritime agencies have initiated an investigation into the “unfortunate” shooting of a Taiwanese fisherman off Batanes, maintaining that the incident occurred during lawful operations within territorial waters.
The shooting death of a Taiwanese fisherman by the Philippine Coast Guard has become the latest incident to roil tensions over territorial disputes in and around the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), with Taipei calling Friday for Manila to apologize for the shooting.
The Aquino administration on Saturday said it sought United Nations arbitration as a “last resort” because China had refused to withdraw its ships from Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough Shoal), which the country insists is within Philippine territory.
The Aquino administration turned the tables on Beijing on Saturday, accusing the Chinese government of occupying a piece of Philippine territory in the South China Sea.
In agreeing to engage China in negotiations for a code of conduct in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) is sending a clear message to Beijing: It’s time to view the territorial disputes in the sea as a regional problem and they must be solved through regional, not bilateral, action.
China on Friday accused the Philippines of trying to legalize its occupation of islands in the disputed West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), repeating that Beijing would never agree to international arbitration.
Southeast Asian leaders on Thursday called for urgent talks with China to ensure that increasingly tense territorial disputes over the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) did not escalate into violence.
