The government is waging a media campaign in the local and international stage to strengthen its claims to the contested reefs, shoals and isles in the South China Sea (SCS), or West Philippine Sea (WPS), to the Philippines.
The campaign came on the heels of “patently illegal reclamations” being conducted by China in some of the contested areas along with its refusal to participate in the ongoing arbitration proceedings before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea at the Hague in
the Netherlands.
China refuses to defend its territorial claims, comprising of some 90 percent of the 3.5 million square miles of the WPS because it doesn’t recognize international arbitration of its dispute with the Philippines.
The first salvo was fired on Friday when Foreign Affairs Spokesman Charles C. Jose spoke before the first-ever Special Kapihan ng Mamamayan on the West Philippine Sea at Subic Bay Freeport in Olongapo City, Zambales.
The next Special Kapihan will be held in Palawan, another “frontline” province in the maritime disputes. The media forum was jointly organized by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) through its regional offices in Central Luzon.
A series of Special Kapihans will be held throughout the rest of the year and in 2015 as part of the DFA’s nationwide campaign to bring the WPS issue to the grassroots of Philippine society, the DFA said.
Conducted largely in the vernacular language, the Special Kapihan aims to explain the WPS issue to ordinary Filipinos and gain support for the measures being undertaken by the Philippine government to address it. The WPS is the area that encompasses the country’s exclusive economic zone and forms part of the bigger SCS.
The WPS is also home to 20 percent of the country’s marine resources. Its rich coral formations serve as spawning grounds that replenish depleted stocks in waters adjacent to the Philippines. It is also a transit area for migratory species.
To let the world know of the Philippine claim, Foreign Secretary Albert F. del Rosario on Friday said the country will inform the world and Chinese citizens of the Philippine claim to the SCS by uploading the ancient maps to Chinese web sites.
“If you look at the historical maps and the maps you’ve seen here, for instance, Scarborough Shoal is very much a part of the Philippines,” del Rosario told members of the media.
Scarborough Shoal is more than 500 nautical miles from China’s Hainan Island, but only 124 kilometers from the Philippines.
The old maps on exhibit showed that for almost 1,000 years, from the Song Dynasty in the year 960 until the end of the Qing Dynasty early in the 20th century, China’s southernmost territory was always Hainan Island, just off the Chinese coast.
“We should respect historical facts, not historical lies,” said Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, who has done extensive research on the territorial disputes.
China travel warning to PHL
China has warned its citizens not to travel to the Philippines after a Chinese teenager who worked in a family-run store was kidnapped and after government agents arrested a group of men who said they planned to attack the Chinese embassy in Manila.
“Given that the safety situation in the Philippines is deteriorating, the consular service of the foreign ministry is asking Chinese nationals not to travel to the Philippines for the time being,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
The warning comes as relations between the countries have soured and even turned hostile in recent years as Beijing and Manila battle over claims to the same territory in the South China Sea.
Philippine government agents arrested three men on September 1 at Manila’s airport and found the four gas-filled plastic bottles and an old pistol in their car at a parking lot. The agents said the men planned to ignite one bottle at a parking lot restroom and the three others at a shopping mall and also had a plan to “strafe” the Chinese embassy.
The Philippine military, however, has played down the supposed threat coming from these men, describing them as “pranksters” who did not belong to any of the known terrorist groups in the country.
In a separate incident on late Thursday, 18-year-old Li Peizhi was seized by unidentified gunmen in Zamboanga Sibugay province’s Kabasalan township, Senior Inspector Leo Castillo said. The gunmen also took P20,000 pesos from the store’s cash register.
Castillo, the provincial police spokesman, said officers in pursuit found the kidnappers’ vehicle burning in a village about two kilometers away.
Mayor George Cainglet said Abu Sayyaf militants who kidnapped Australian Warren Richard Rodwell in 2011 may have been involved. He said no ransom demand had been made. With AP
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SITUATION NOT NORMAL ( Warren Rodwell ) Song https://youtu.be/d3dP4uwWhUU based on a true story about a kidnap for ransom. Lyrics by Warren Rodwell https://warrenrodwell.com & Peter Brideoake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Brideoake Music & vocals by Mark Dumol ( a.k.a. Nissimac Eternal ) Recorded in Manila, The Philippines