Philippines says China used water cannon on fishermen in disputed sea

Chinese coastguard ship used a water cannon last month to drive Filipino fishermen out of disputed waters in the South China Sea, illustrating aggressive enforcement of new Chinese rules, the head of the Philippine military said on Monday.

MANILA Mon Feb 24, 2014

China has since the beginning of the year required foreign fishing boats to get approval before entering waters that China claims as its own.

"The Chinese coastguard tried to drive away fishermen to the extent of using water cannon," Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Emmanuel Bautista told foreign correspondents, referring to a January 27 incident near the Scarborough Shoal.

China claims about 90 percent of the South China Sea's 3.5 million sq km (1.35 million sq mile) waters. The sea provides 10 percent of the global fish catch, carries $5 trillion in ship-borne trade a year and is believed to be rich in energy.

Taiwan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei and Vietnam also claim parts of the sea.

Bautista declined to give more details about the confrontation in the area, about 130 nautical miles west of the main Philippine island of Luzon, saying the military still had to talk to the fishermen.

He said the Philippine military would try to avoid confrontation with China but would react if China used violence against Philippine fishermen.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she was not aware of details of the situation, and repeated that China had sovereignty over the South China Sea and its islands.

"The relevant Chinese maritime forces carry out normal official patrols in that area," she told a daily news briefing.

A senior Philippine navy official said it was the first time China used water cannon in the area.

"Our fishermen are used to playing a dangerous cat-and-mouse game but China has become very aggressive," said the navy official who declined to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

The Philippines has taken its dispute with China to arbitration under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea but China is refusing to participate in the case.

China has rejected challenges to its sovereignty claims and accused the Philippines of illegally occupying Chinese islands in the seas and of provoking tension.

This month, the commander of the U.S. Navy said the United States would come to the aid of the Philippines in the event of conflict with China over disputed waters.

The U.S. ambassador to the Philippines, Philip Goldberg, who was attending the same forum as Bautista, urged the Association of South East Asian Nations and China to accelerate negotiations on a code of conduct for the sea to avoid accidents and miscalculations.

"We believe that the agreement on the code of conduct is long overdue," Goldberg said, adding that the United States supported Philippine efforts to bring the dispute to international arbitration.

Philippines protests to China after water cannons used to drive Filipino fishermen from shoal

 

 

BY JIM GOMEZ, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FEBRUARY 25, 2014

 

 

 

Philippine Military Chief Emmanuel Bautista, center, answers questions from reporters, as U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg, right, listens during a forum at Makati, south of Manila, Philippines on Monday Feb. 24, 2014. Bautista said Filipino fishermen have reported that a Chinese coast guard vessel used water cannon to drive them away from a disputed shoal. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine government summoned China's top envoy in Manila on Tuesday to protest what it said was the firing of a water cannon by a Chinese government vessel to drive away Filipino fishermen from a hotly disputed shoal in the South China Sea.

Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Raul Hernandez said the protest was handed to Beijing's charge d'affairs over the Jan. 27 incident at Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing ground claimed by China and the Philippines. China ignored the protest and called its sovereignty there "indisputable."

China has controlled the shoal since Philippine vessels backed off from a tense standoff there in 2012. Chinese coast guard and surveillance ships have guarded the territory and chased away Filipino fishermen if they ventured close. The Philippines asked an international tribunal last year to declare China's seizure of the shoal and seven other South China Sea reefs illegal.

Filipino fish trader Macario Forones said Chinese coast guard personnel used crude oil-laden waste water while blowing their ship's horn and yelling "Go away, go away" at his fishermen. One or two other Philippine fishing boats were hit by the waste water, he said.

"The water smelled of oil and smeared the side of my fishing boat," Forones told The Associated Press by telephone from western Zambales province. "But my fishermen did not really leave the area. We've spent so much money to travel there and they basically ignored the Chinese."

The Chinese coast guard vessel with bow No. 3063 used its water cannon for several minutes and sounded its horn to drive away 2 of 14 Filipino fishing boats, Hernandez told a news conference.

"It is a strong protest against the Chinese for the harassment," Hernandez said of the diplomatic action, adding that China's massive territorial claim in the South China Sea was "excessive, expansive and illegal."

"These actions, these incidents surely escalate the tension in the area and this further threatens the peace and security and stability in the region," he said.

China repeated that it "has indisputable sovereignty over South China Sea islands and their adjacent waters, Huangyan Island included," using the Chinese name of Scarborough. It did not confirm nor deny the water cannon attack but said Chinese government vessels were patrolling the Scarborough area regularly.

"The Chinese side does not accept the so-called 'protest' by the Philippine side," Chinese Embassy spokesman Zhang Hua said in a statement.

President Benigno Aquino III said his government will ask Beijing if this was an isolated incident or a new Chinese way of engaging rival nations in the disputed waters.

Military chief of staff Gen. Emmanuel Bautista told reporters Monday that Philippine forces adhere to a no-confrontation policy in the disputed areas but would defend the country and its people if they are threatened.

The Philippine military said it would not retaliate.

"Although it is an aggressive act, it does not merit a military response," military spokesman Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala said. "We encourage our fishermen to continue with their normal lives. We cannot let an aggressor stop our way of life, especially livelihood."

China, the Philippines and four other governments have been disputing ownership of resource-rich South China Sea territories for years. Many fear the disputes could set off a major armed conflict.