MANILA: Navy vessels from the Philippines successfully completed a resupply mission on Tuesday at a South China Sea outpost, its defence minister said, a day after its president spoke at an international summit for its blockade of the area.
Two vessels were unhindered earlier on Tuesday in reaching the Sierra Madre, a ship intentionally grounded decades ago at the Second Thomas Shoal, Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said in a statement.
A small boat was dispatched from a Chinese coast guard vessel with three people, who recorded the unloading of Philippine personnel and cargo, he said.
The Philippines and United States last week condemned China’s coast guard for interrupting the mission and using water cannon on the resupply boats. The area is within the Philippines’ its 200 mile exclusive economic zone.
“I have communicated to the Chinese ambassador that we consider these acts as a form of intimidation and harassment,” Lorenzana said.
China’s embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
A small contingent of military have for years been based on the rusty ship at the shoal to assert the Philippines’ claim to sovereignty in the area.
President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday told a summit hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping that he “abhors” what took place at the shoal last week and that the rule of law was the only way out of “colossal” rows in the South China Sea.
China claims the majority of the South China Sea as its own, using a “nine-dash line” on maps that an arbitration tribunal in 2016 ruled had no basis under international law.
It has for years deployed hundreds of vessels in big clusters to reinforce its claim. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have competing claims.
Meanwhile, Lorenzana said he and Huang had been talking “since the evening of the 16th while the incident was happening until yesterday, 20 November”.
The Chinese embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
There will be no navy or coast guard escorts for the Philippines’ resupply boats when they sail back to Second Thomas Shoal, Lorenzana said.
“They (China) have no right to impede, prevent or harass our ships within our EEZ (exclusive economic zone), whether we are fishing or bringing supplies to our detachment in the Sierra Madre (navy ship) in Ayungin Shoal,” he said.
The chief of the Philippine military’s Western Command, Vice Admiral Ramil Roberto Enriquez, meanwhile said the number of Chinese coast guard vessels in Second Thomas Shoal had gone down to two as of Saturday night from three on Tuesday. He said the Chinese maritime militia vessels had also left the shoal. China has denied operating a militia. There were 19 vessels near Second Thomas Shoal recently and 45 near Thitu Island, another Philippines-occupied area, according to National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon. – Reuters
