President Rodrigo Duterte on Sunday ordered the Philippine Coast Guard to patrol the waters of Batanes to ensure that those islands will remain in the territory of the Philippines, in the wake of Chinese reclamation activities in South China Sea.
President Duterte, during a situation briefing with Batanes officials directed Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana to deploy Coast Guard vessels in the northernmost islands of the country.
“You might want to ask the Coast Guard to go here, stay a bit, switch every now and then, to patrol the island from time to time. Not everyday but just to assure that those islands will remain ours,” he said.
“And whatever is ours…it should be very clear to everybody that it is ours. You are no longer ready to go into that style the way China did it. It was not really something that we give freely,” he added.
During the meeting, Duterte raised concerns that China and Taiwan, two of the claimants in the South China Sea, are near the Batanes Islands.
Lorenzana said he would deploy the Coast Guard to patrol the area.
“In a couple of weeks, they will be there,” he said in a television interview on Monday.
Lorenzana added that the military has established a presence on Mavulis Island, the country’s northernmost island, where the government also built a fisherman’s shelter.
The Defense chief suggested that a Coast Guard station be built in the municipality of Basco.
Duterte also said he wants to extend the runways in two Batanes airports for “national security.”
“It could be a very crucial factor in the days to come. Not in our generation, but you wouldn’t know. It would be good to prepared so that if we have to defend those islands there, you have to have a launching deck somewhere here,” he said.
China has been asserting its ownership of almost the entire South China Sea based on “historic rights.” It has also refused to observe the 2016 arbitral ruling that dismissed their claim in favor of the Philippines.
Duterte said the extension of runways in the province will also ease the delivery of relief supplies for those who were affected by the twin earthquake that jolted the islands Saturday morning.
There are two runways in the province the Basco Airport on the main island of Batan and the Itbayat Airport or Jorge Abad Airport which is used by small planes.
Also on Monday, Senator Francis Tolentino blamed the Department of Foreign Affairs for not coming out with a written record on President Duterte’s 2016 verbal agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping in which Chinese fishermen were allowed to operate in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
In a privilege speech Monday, Tolentino insisted there is no need for the Senate to concur to the oral agreement because it merely implements provisions in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
He added that there was no need to scrutinize the agreement because the President was just doing his job, and that the agreement did not prejudice the country’s welfare and interest.
But Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon repeatedly asked Tolentino for details of the verbal agreement, citing the need for a reference point.
“What was the agreement all about? Nobody knows,” he said.
Drilon pleaded wth Tolentino to perform the task of putting on record details of the verbal agreement, which the new senator described as “binding.”
Drilon then rebuked Tolentino for describing the deal as binding, when he himself had no knowledge of the verbal agreement.
“Until we have definite pronouncements or record on the Senate, it would be extremely difficult to debate on it o come out with policy,” Drilon said.
At this point, Tolentino said it was the DFA that should make a report to the Senate, because it was the official repository of all treaties.