Despite increasing challenges, the Philippines remains committed to conducting maritime and air patrols to uphold its sovereignty and jurisdiction over Bajo de Masinloc, known internationally as Scarborough Shoal.
National Security Council (NSC) Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya highlighted this during the online forum titled “Scarborough Shoal: Facing Facts and Exploring Options,” organized by the Stratbase Institute and Stanford University’s Sealight Project on Tuesday afternoon.
“Notwithstanding those challenges, and (in) behalf of our fishermen and of course the territorial integrity of the Philippines, we will continue to ramp (our) presence by sending our ships regularly on maritime patrol as well as air patrols just to fly the flag and to send a very, very strong message that we will not be deterred in asserting our rights and jurisdiction in Bajo de Masinloc,” Malaya said.
The NSC executive also underscored that the territorial integrity of the Philippines on the area is “foundational and non-negotiable.”
“(It) has always been the position of the Philippines since the 2016 Arbitral Ruling,” Malaya said, adding this will continue despite the doubling of Chinese maritime presence in Scarborough Shoal.
“Our legal status is very clear and, therefore, it is the responsibility and mandate of (the) government to implement that legal status, implement the 2016 Arbitral Ruling, implement the Maritime Zones Law,” Malaya said. “Therefore, we must fly the flag and we must stand for international law.”
National Security Adviser Eduardo Año earlier said security challenges in the West Philippine Sea or South China Sea are “unlikely to diminish anytime soon.”
“The situation becomes even more complex due to potential flashpoints in the area, which continue to evolve amid rising geopolitical and geoeconomic tensions and shifting global security dynamics,” Año noted in the same forum.
China seized Scarborough Shoal, which it refers to as Huangyan Island, from the Philippines in 2012. An international arbitration case went in favor of the Philippines in 2016, stipulating that China’s expansive claims over the entire South China Sea were illegal and invalid.
Scarborough Shoal is located approximately 120 nautical miles (222 kilometers) west of the Philippine island of Luzon, making it geographically closer to Manila and within its exclusive economic zone, as opposed to 594 nautical miles (1,100 kilometers) from China’s Hainan Island.
