Tokyo — Japan plans to donate patrol boats costing $11 million each to the Philippines, ramping up regional efforts to monitor China’s maritime activity in disputed waters, a newspaper said Monday. The Japanese government plans to finance the deal in its fiscal 2013 budget starting in April and hopes to officially sign it early next […]
The Philippines will continue using open communication lines to “talk to our friend China” even as Manila has moved to bring the long-running territorial dispute before an international tribunal, Malacañang said Saturday. Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said this amid reports that China is ignoring the Philippines’ complaint on the dispute. “The Department of Foreign […]
Germany on Thursday backed the Philippines’ call for the settlement of disputes in the South China Sea through international law, a position long frowned on by China, which claims the resource-rich waters nearly in its entirety. While Germany says it does not take sides to the sea row involving the Philippines, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei […]
Malacañang on Sunday said it sees no problem with the entry of a Chinese navy fleet into the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) for patrols and drills. Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the exercises involving the Chinese ships will be conducted in international waters. “I’ve also read that report … and it did […]
President Benigno Aquino III consulted lawmakers and two of his immediate predecessors before the Philippines made the move of dragging China before an international body to settle a territorial dispute. Aquino told reporters covering his visit to Switzerland: “We brought the matter before them [lawmakers and former Presidents Fidel Ramos and Joseph Estrada]… Nobody objected […]
Updated 6:27 p.m.) The Philippines has formally notified China that it is bringing their long-standing territorial disputes over parts of the resource-rich South China Sea to international arbitration for a peaceful and internationally-accepted resolution, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said on Tuesday. Del Rosario said the Philippines handed a note verbale or diplomatic note […]
By Efren Padilla @ http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/291277/opinion/blogs/west-philippine-sea-david-s-slingshot My lawyer friend was fuming mad when he found out that China etched its new passport with the nine-dash line—the U-shaped demarcation line circumscribing about 90 percent of the 3.5-million-square kilometer South China Sea on China’s maps. He was particularly concerned by its ramifications, not only because China can now […]
The Philippines on Friday said it “strongly objects” to China’s deployment of a new patrol vessel in the South China Sea, where the two countries have a seething maritime territorial dispute. Such patrols will not boost China’s claim to the disputed territory where the two countries have had a standoff since April, said Foreign Affairs […]
China’s plan to develop and fortify an expansive area of the resource-rich but disputed West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) lacks merit under international law, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Wednesday. Beijing has established a new city called Sansha under its southern Hainan province to politically administer its claimed territories in the disputed waters […]
The government has not yet made a move to redeploy patrol vessels to the disputed Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal even as three Chinese ships remain in the vicinity, according to Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario. “We had pulled out our ships because of bad weather. There were significant storms there in the last couple of […]