HEADLINE | MANILA- PCG (Philippine Coast Guard) FIRM: ‘Ayungin is ours’
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(UPDATE) DECLARING that “Ayungin Shoal is ours,” the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) on Thursday blasted China for “continuing to ignore the Philippines’ legal ownership” of the shoal, which is in the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
“China continues to ignore the Philippines’ legal ownership of our EEZ over Ayungin Shoal; they continue to assert ownership of the area. We are not competing, this is not disputed as far as the Philippine government is concerned. It’s ours,” PCG spokesman for the West Philippine Sea Commodore Jay Tarriela said during a briefing.
By international law, the Philippines has jurisdiction over all natural resources within its 200-mile EEZ.
China rejects this claim, saying practically all of the South China Sea is part of its territory.
On February 6, a Chinese coast guard vessel aimed a laser beam at a Philippine Navy ship on a resupply run to Ayungin, where Philippine troops are stationed.
The beam temporarily blinded the Navy ship’s crew.
The Philippines has filed a diplomatic protest against China over the incident, but Chinese authorities insist their coast guard’s action was legal.
Tarriela said that last Tuesday, a PCG plane on a reconnaissance flight over Ayungin and Sabina Shoals found that the Chinese coast guard (CCG) continued to maintain a presence in the area.
As the PCG plane approached the airspace over Sabina Shoal, it received inaudible radio challenges, both in English and Chinese, from a Chinese coast guard ship with the numbers 5304 painted on its bow, Tarriela said.
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The aircraft issued its own radio challenge emphasizing that it was on a routine maritime domain awareness flight within airspace over the Philippine EEZ and directing CCG-5304 to leave the area immediately.
Tarriela said the PCG continued to issue radio challenges to both CCG vessels and suspected Chinese maritime force ships in the area.
The PCG plane’s pilots relayed the incident to the Philippine soldiers stationed aboard the beached BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin, assuring them that the PCG was ready to support them.
The PCG said the presence of CCG vessels in Ayungin and Sabina Shoals was further confirmed by its automatic identification system (AIS) signatures.
Tarriela said AIS data processed by the PCG indicated that CCG 5205 — the vessel that flashed a laser at the BRP Malapascua — sailed out of the Kalayaan Island Group en route to Hainan, China, on February 8. But another vessel, CCG-5304, stayed in Ayungin.
Tarriela said that as of Wednesday, around 26 Chinese vessels were still moored near Sabina Shoal and four near Ayungin.
PCG Commandant Admiral Artemio Abu has directed maritime patrols and reconnaissance flights in the West Philippine Sea stepped up.
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