Southeast Asian watch of troubled waters urged

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has proposed to Southeast Asian countries a region-wide information-sharing system to better watch waters troubled by territorial disputes, piracy, smuggling and destruction of coral and other marine resources.

Philippine officials say the proposal was made Wednesday at the start of a three-day maritime forum in Manila organized by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Indonesia made a similar proposal at the conference, attended mostly by senior diplomats and private maritime experts.

The Philippine proposal says robust information sharing in the region will allow each country to better deal with cross-border threats, which would be difficult to monitor alone.

Four ASEAN member countries — Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam — along with China and Taiwan have territorial disputes in the South China Sea.