‘Out of their minds’: Navy hits China’s fishing ban in West PH Sea

TIGHT GUARDING A China Coast Guard vessel keeps a close watch on a small Filipino fishing boat in this photo taken earlier this month some 93 kilometers (50 nautical miles) away from Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal in the West Philippine Sea. —RICHARD A. REYES

MANILA, Philippines — A Philippine Navy spokesperson on Wednesday slammed China’s four-month fishing ban in South China Sea which encroaches on the West Philippine Sea, saying those who made the unilateral policy must be “out of their minds.”

“China is out of tune, out of step, out of their minds,” said Navy spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea Roy Vincent Trinidad in a press conference in Taguig.

Beijing’s fishing moratorium, which outright disregards Manila’s exclusive economic zone in its western section, already started on May 1, 2024 and is expected to last until September 16, 2024.

READ: No Filipinos arrested over fishing ban by China since 2021 — Navy spox

Trinidad said that the Philippine government does not recognize this unilateral policy.

“The Philippine Navy does not recognize this provocative statement nor will we be deterred in performing our mandate of securing the welfare of the Filipino,” he said.

READ: Life goes on for local fishers amid China ban

Trinidad also noted that for China, lawfare or the usage of legal means to cause problems for its opponent “is one of the instruments in their cookbook” to realize their ultimate objective of controlling the entire South China Sea.

Beijing asserts sovereignty in almost the entire South China Sea, including most of the West Philippine Sea, even if such a claim has been effectively invalidated by a July 2016 international tribunal ruling from a case filed by Manila in 2013.