The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) stands prepared ought to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) request for extra vessels that may escort boats for resupply missions to BRP Sierra Madre on the Ayungin Shoal, following China’s water cannon blasting incident final week.
At the Saturday News Forum in Quezon City, PCG spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea Commodore Jay Tarriela stated, “If the Armed Forces of the Philippines would request the Philippine Coast Guard to provide escort, we will deploy vessels that will support the supply mission.”
Tarriela stated PCG Commandant Admiral Artemio Abu “is willing to deploy additional vessels to support the resupply mission and if it needs be to deploy a 97-meter vessel that would also be an option.”
The PCG can be keen to deploy the offshore patrol vessel, “which is bigger than the 44-meter that we deployed before.”
Last weekend, the China Coast Guard (CCG) used water cannons towards the PCG vessels going to Ayungin Shoal for a resupply mission on the BRP Sierra Madre.
Beijing claimed that the Philippine ships intruded into the Ayungin Shoal, which it stated is a part of its territory, and violated China’s legal guidelines in the course of the conduct of the resupply mission.
The Ayungin Shoal, nonetheless, is a part of the Kalayaan Island Group, which is an integral a part of the Philippines, in addition to the Philippines’ unique financial zone and continental shelf, over which the Philippines has sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction.
Philippine lawmakers condemned the August 5 incident, and Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri urged Marcos to deliver the difficulty earlier than the worldwide group.
The US, Canada, Japan, Australia, and the European Union have additionally decried the occasion, restating their assist for the 2016 arbitral ruling.
This just isn’t the primary time that Chinese vessels have used water cannons towards Philippine ships or focused resupply missions to the Sierra Madre, a rusting Navy ship that has been moored at Ayungin Shoal since 1999.
In 2016, the Philippines scored victory in a landmark ruling by a world tribunal that invalidated China’s large claims to almost everything of the South China Sea, together with the West Philippine Sea, or the waters throughout the Philippines’ unique financial zone.
China has refused to acknowledge the ruling, and has made repeated incursions into territories within the sea in addition to performed reclamation actions within the space. —VAL, GMA Integrated News
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
