The Philippines on Sunday evening issued a formal diplomatic protest to China after hundreds of fishing vessels were spotted at a disputed reef in the South China Sea.
About 220 Chinese vessels were seen moored in line at Whitsun Reef in the South China Sea on March 7, a Philippine government task force overseeing the disputed waters said in a statement on Saturday.
The vessels’ presence is “a concern due to the possible overfishing and destruction of the marine environment, as well as risks to safety of navigation,” the Philippine government statement said.
The area, which Manila calls Julian Felipe, is a large but shallow, boomerang-shaped coral reef within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, the task force said.
A diplomatic protest was “fired off tonight,” Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Teodoro Locsin wrote on Twitter.
China was deploying “numerous ships into the area and stationing them at strategic locations, ready to be called upon to participate in any operations it may wish to carry out against any other countries,” said Jay Batongbacal, director of the University of the Philippines’ Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea.
“These operations can cover everything from surveillance to forcing unilateral exploitation of resources to wresting islands away from other nations,” Batongbacal added. “Whether this particular deployment of vessels on Whitsun Reef is preparatory to another specific operation, we have yet to see.”
Philippine presidential spokesman Harry Roque yesterday played down the possibility of any escalation similar to one in 2012 when the Philippine Navy apprehended a group of Chinese fishing frigates at the Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島), which is also claimed by Taiwan.
“We have a close friendship. Everything can be discussed between friends and neighbors,” Roque said in a televised media briefing.
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