Public interest should guide PH action on Reed incident
Credit to Author: THE MANILA TIMES| Date: Sun, 16 Jun 2019 16:13:12 +0000
The government has come under growing pressure from all sides to take an aggressive action on the recent Reed (Recto) incident in the contested South China Sea (West Philippine Sea) and is itself anxious to find a resolution to the difficult situation, which is even made more complicated by diplomatic issues involved.
But a clear decision is yet to emerge, based on developments reported the past few days.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, for one, told the media that President Rodrigo Duterte had called for a special Cabinet meeting today to discuss the reported ramming of a Filipino fishing boat by a Chinese vessel in the disputed sea.
The special meeting was supposed to be held this afternoon after the ceremony marking the 121st anniversary of the Philippine Navy.
Before any Cabinet member could pitch his two cents as contribution to the subject, however, Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea announced on Sunday that the meeting had been canceled.
It is probably just as well that the special meeting is not going to happen today because, mainly, the Philippine government evidently lacks the “goods” by way of incontrovertible evidence against the Chinese vessel and its crew, the supposedly belligerent “guilty” party to the ramming at the Reed.
The air is filled with speculations and calls for retaliation against Beijing, with probably the most thoughtless a demand from aggrieved Filipinos to sever diplomatic relations with Beijing.
Everyone professes to know a ready solution or instant formula for resolving the issue, others want a full investigation of the incident and one highly political member of our Supreme Court (SC) wants Manila to take what he described as strong action against China over the incident.
What are the available facts?
On June 9, a Chinese vessel rammed a Filipino fishing boat F/B Gem-Vir 1, and fled, leaving 22 local fishermen–later rescued by Vietnamese sailors–to fend for themselves in the open sea.
Beijing’s embassy in Manila issued a statement, saying the Chinese-flagged Yuemaobinyu 42212 was involved in the incident, but that it was “berthed” when seven or eight Filipino fishing boats “besieged” it, causing the former vessel’s crew to escape.
Our Department of Foreign Affairs has already filed a diplomatic protest with China over the incident.
SC Justice Antonio Carpio said it is “highly likely that a Chinese maritime militia vessel rammed the Filipino fishing vessel” in Recto Bank because “China’s maritime militia vessels have reinforced steel hulls purposely for ramming fishing vessels of other coastal states. No other coastal state has fishing vessels purposely designed for ramming other fishing vessels.”
Carpio contended that the incident at Reed bank–which is within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone–shows that there is an escalation of China’s acts against the Philippines in the South China Sea.
He apparently was suggesting that Manila “break” diplomatic ties with China over the ramming.
But the incident concerns the executive branch, specifically the Foreign Affairs department.
We say this matter is best approached from the perspective of the public and the national interest.
And talk about severance of diplomatic ties between Manila and Beijing would seem hysterical.
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