No war; just an anti-China demo The US Pinoys for Good Governance (USP4GG) denounces China’s latest ‘incursion’ in Ayungin Reef, located just 105 nautical miles from Palawan.’ WHILE our President stresses that we, Pinoys, are not a war-like people, a US group of Filipinos will hold a protest rally at the United Nations headquarters in New York, next month on July 24. The US Pinoys for Good Governance (USP4GG) denounces China’s latest “incursion” in Ayungin Reef, located just 105 nautical miles from Palawan. Rep. Walden Bello of the Akbayan partylist will join the July 24 mass action in the Philippines and will encourage its supporters throughout the world to join in global actions to denounce China’s provocative actions in the Ayungin Reef. “China seized the Philippines’ Mischief Reef in 1994, then our Scarborough Shoal last year,” stated Loida Nicolas Lewis, the national chair of USP4GG and former national chair of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA). “This year, China is set to invade and occupy the Ayungin Reef. We refuse to accept China’s expansionist agenda.” Lewis explains that July 24 marks the first anniversary of China’s establishment of the Sansha City Prefecture, which Beijing created to have jurisdiction over more than two million square kilometers of the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea), including islands and reefs in the Spratlys that are within the 200-mile exclusive economic zone of the Philippines. Our Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) protested the creation of the Sansha Prefecture, whose jurisdiction covers the Kalayaan Island Group in the Spratlys, which cannot be part of China because it is “an integral part of the Philippine territory falling under the municipality of Kalayaan in Palawan province.” In fact, we have filed a protest against the creation of the new city. “Sansha City has been a subject of a Philippine protest as its administrative jurisdiction encompasses Philippine territory and maritime zones in the West Philippine Sea,” explains DFA spokesman Raul Hernandez. The USP4GG announced that the July 24 action at the United Nations includes simultaneous town hall meetings in Filipino communities. These meetings will discuss the China threat to the Philippines. It would also call on the US communities of the claimant countries whose territories are being invaded by Chinese ships from the Sansha Prefecture. “All patriotic Filipinos should join in the July 4 denunciation of China’s imperialist activities in the South China/West Philippine Sea,” says the USP4GG. The creation of the Sansha Prefecture is in “gross violation” of the Declaration of Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), a ten-year-old document that discourages the use of force among countries claiming resource-rich territories in the South China Sea, including China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan and the Philippines. Instead of taking heed, Beijing brusquely announced that Chinese naval ships from the Sansha Prefecture have begun patrolling the waters in the South China Sea. Recently, Philippine maritime surveillance vessels spotted three Chinese naval ships surrounding the Ayungin Reef (Second Thomas Shoal), which is located just 105 nautical miles from Palawan, well within the 200-mile exclusive economic zone of the Philippines. The Ayungin Reef is guarded by a Philippine marine detachment on board the BRP Sierra Madre, which is permanently moored on the reef to protect it. “We will not allow China to establish a blockade to prevent the Philippine Navy from replenishing the Philippine marine base at Ayungin with personnel and materials,” declared Ted Laguatan, spokesman of the USP4GG. “We support Philippine Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin’s vow to defend Ayungin to the last soldier standing.” The Ayungin Reef is considered the gateway to the Recto Bank, which the US Energy Information Agency (EIA) estimates to contain 2.5 billion barrels of oil and 25.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. In his July 25, 2011 State of the Nation Address (SONA), Pres. Benigno S. Aquino III declared: “What is ours is ours; setting foot on Recto Bank is no different from setting foot on Recto Avenue.” The Philippines has formally filed its claim against China before the United Nations Arbitral Tribunal under Article 287 and Annex VII of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The Philippines asserts that China’s “nine-dash line” claim that encompasses virtually the entire South China Sea/West Philippine Sea is contrary to UNCLOS and is thus unlawful. The Philippines also charged that “within the maritime area encompassed by the nine-dash line, China has also laid claim to, occupied and built structures on certain submerged banks, reefs and low tide elevations that do not qualify as islands under UNCLOS, but are parts of the Philippine continental shelf, or the international seabed and has interfered with the lawful exercise by the Philippines of its rights within its legitimate maritime zones, as well as to the aforementioned features and their surrounding waters.” Our President is treading carefully even as our brothers in America want to show China we’re no pushover. No, we’re no pushovers -- not with America’s and other nations’ support. *** Our three battleships from America and a dozen jet fighters from South Korea (and even the support of the Japanese Navy) are not enough to scare off the People’s Republic of China (PROC), one of the largest military forces in today’s world. Clearly, we are no match for China’s military strength. Consider, too, that our local Communists who have been fighting a protracted war against our military for over 65 years, will surely be doing what they can to bring down our democratic government. Let’s be realists. Against China, our one hope is that our Mutual Defense Treaty with the United States will kick in as soon as the first Chinese warship fires its cannons or missiles at any of our vessels. This is not the time to protest against our former colonial overlords. Let’s not wait for the time when the Chinese Communists and their local comrades have captured part of our country and we must choose between accepting Communism and fighting for Democracy. malaya.ph/index.php/opinion/33899-no-war-just-an-anti-china-demo Hitman
Posted on: Thu, 20 Jun 2013 11:36:11 +0000
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