China has stationed several ships near a disputed atoll in the South China Sea, preventing Philippine fishermen from accessing traditional fishing grounds and raising tensions in the volatile region, Philippine officials said yesterday.
China had deployed up to seven ships to Quirino Atoll, also known as Jackson Atoll, said Eugenio Bito-onon Jr, the mayor of nearby Pagasa Island (Jhongye Island, 中業島) in the Spratly Islands (Nansha Islands, 南沙群島).
“This is very alarming, Quirino is on our path when we travel from Palawan to Pagasa. It is halfway and we normally stop there to rest,” Bito-onon Jr said.
“I feel something different. The Chinese are trying to choke us by putting an imaginary checkpoint there. It is a clear violation of our right to travel, impeding freedom of navigation,” he said.
Fishermen told the mayor one Filipino boat had run aground in the area and was still there, but was not being harassed by the Chinese vessels.
The Philippine military said it was trying to verify the presence of Chinese ships near Jackson Atoll, where a Chinese warship allegedly fired warning shots at Philippine fishermen in 2011.
“We know there are Chinese ships moving around the Spratly area,” Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesman Brigadier-General Restituto Padilla said.
“There are also ships around Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙), so we want to make sure if the presence is permanent,” he said.
Second Thomas Shoal is where the Philippine Navy has been occupying and reinforcing a rusting ship that it ran aground in 1999 to bolster its claims to the disputed reef.
In Beijing, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hong Lei (洪磊) said the Chinese Ministry of Transport had sent vessels to tow the grounded ship and they had since left the surrounding waters.
“To guarantee safety of navigation and of work conditions, China urged fishing vessels near the site to leave,” Hong said, adding that China had indisputable sovereignty over the atoll.
A military source from Palawan said a surveillance plane had seen four to five ships in the vicinity of Jackson Atoll last week.
The source could not say if the ships were passing through or permanently stationed there because the area is close to Mischief Reef (Meiji Reef, 美濟礁), where China is building an artificial island.
“There are no indications China will build structures or develop it into an island,” said the source, who was not authorized to speak to the media about the South China Sea.
However, later in the day yesterday, a Philippine security official said an air force surveillance plane did not see Chinese vessels during a flight over the area yesterday.
The Philippines Star newspaper, which earlier reported the story, quoted an unidentified fisherman as saying Chinese boats chased them away when they tried to enter the area last week.
“These gray and white Chinese ships, around four of them inside the lagoon, prevented us from entering our traditional fishing ground,” the fisherman said.
Additional reporting by AP
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