Tarriela blasts China for accusing PH of destroying Rozul Reef corals

Commodore Jay Tarriela, Spokesperson of Philippine Coast Guard for the West Philippine Sea ARNEL TACSON/INQUIRER.NET

MANILA, Philippines — A Philippine Coast Guard (PCG)  spokesperson slammed China’s “hypocrisy” for claiming that the country’s installation of fish attracting devices would lead to the destruction of the corals of Rozul (Iroquois) Reef.

“The People’s Republic of China should stop its hypocrisy in pretending to be concerned about the coral reefs and marine environment,” said PCG spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea spokesperson Commodore Jay Tarriela in a post in X (formerly Twitter) on Monday night.

The ships of PCG and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), accompanied by two fishing boats, dropped “floating aggregate devices” or “payao” on April 4 in the area situated inside the country’s exclusive economic zone.

READ: ‘Irreparable harm’: China intrusion’s impact on West Philippine Sea ecosystem

READ: PCG: China Coast Guard harasses PH boats yet again

Usage of ‘payao’

Chinese state-backed  tabloid Global Times, citing Yang Xiao, deputy director of the Institute of Maritime Strategy Studies at China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, on April 6 said the usage of payao “presents issues of overfishing and can destroy coral reefs and the ecological environment.”

China Coast Guard vessels “harassed” the PCG and BFAR vessels during the operation according to Tarriela, but Yang believes the former’s actions are justified.

However, in terms of coral destruction in the South China Sea, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative’s Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) reported that over 4,000 hectares in China-occupied reef features had already been destroyed. Of this number, CSIS said some 1,800 hectares of coral reefs have been destroyed by China’s artificial island-building through dredging and land fill.

Tarriela said: “China’s hypocrisy cannot make the world forget the massive damages it caused in creating its reclaimed islands in the entire South China Sea!”