malaysiangRetired Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio on Thursday recommended constructing a lighthouse or a civilian structure to further assert the Philippines’ rights over Ayungin Shoal in light of recent developments in the area. Carpio said Manila can construct a civilian structure on Ayungin since the feature is located well within the Philippines’ 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ). ‘[W]hat we should do is to put up a civilian lighthouse on Ayungin Shoal, send resupply ships there, send construction materials, and if China stops it, then we can go to the Tribunal. This is a civilian activity, it’s now covered,’ he said in an interview in Makati City. ‘We have the exclusive right to put up any structure that we want within our exclusive economic zone and the lighthouse is good for navigations. Good for everybody.” In a Stratbase ADR Institute forum, also in Makati City, Carpio said Ayungin Shoal is one of the possible flashpoints where Beijing is ‘most likely to use’ its new Coast Guard Law that authorizes the Chinese Coast Guard ‘to use all necessary measures including the use of weapons’ to enforce its claims in the South China Sea. Carpio posited that China seeks “to seize Ayungin Shoal from the Philippines’ due to its proximity to Mischief Reef or Panganiban Reef, among others. ‘For the longest time China has been trying to force the Philippines to abandon Ayungin Shoal. China continues to do so today as seen by recent events last week when a Chinese coast guard vessel water cannoned a Philippine resupply ship to Ayungin Shoal,’ he said. Both Mischief Reef and Ayungin Shoal are within the country’s EEZ and continental shelf as affirmed by the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016. China occupied Mischief Reef in 1995 and has since fortified it, making the Philippines the only country with a ‘Chinese base, with a port, airfield, and anti-ship missiles in its EEZ,’ said security expert Ray Powell in a separate interview. Resupplying Sierra Madre Last Aug. 5, the Chinese Coast Guard and Chinese maritime militia vessels blocked and water-cannoned Philippine military commissioned boats conducting a regular rotation and resupply mission to BRP Sierra Madre on Ayungin Shoal. The blocking and water cannoning incident lasted for over an hour. The rusting BRP Sierra Madre, beached in 1999 as a response to China’s occupation of Mischief Reef, remains the ‘most vulnerable outpost’ in the entire South China Sea. ‘It’s vulnerable not just because of how few people are there and their inability to defend themselves, but the fact that their outpost is deteriorating and ultimately will succumb to time and the weather and the elements,’ Powell said. ‘That will happen unless the Philippines with its US ally and others are able to come up with some other solution to repairing or replacing or somehow lifting, circumventing or defeating the ongoing (Chinese) blockade,’ Powell told reporters. Carpio said the country could send bigger Philippine Coast Guard vessels during resupply missions and tap partners for joint patrols. ‘[One is] send bigger ships. Two, if China still persists, then we have joint patrols,’ he said. Stratbase ADR Institute President Dindo Manhit, meanwhile, said the Philippines should not be deterred from sending supplies to Ayungin. ‘What’s happening now is they’re stopping us from moving forward. I think our supply ships should really push through, and maybe this is where we can maximize joint patrols and be shepherded by allies and friends as we should resupply not for the cost of war, but simply exercising our own rights based on international law on a military facility that is within our EEZ,’ he said.
Source: Philippines News Agency
