Puwersa ng Bayaning Atleta party-list Rep. Jericho Nograles questioned Sunday the true mission of the Chinese spy ship that ventured into Philippine domestic waters while warning that this could be a test of the country’s border security amid the escalating tension between China and Taiwan.
He cited the latest incursion of China must be cause of alarm for Philippine security officials, saying while previous territorial breaches were on the country’s exclusive economic zone, this was the first publicly disclosed incident of a Chinese military ship detected in our domestic waters.
He reacted to a report that a Chinese reconnaissance ship was detected in the vicinity of Sulu sea near eastern Palawan and was demanded to leave by the Philippine Navy.
There was no immediately available comment from the Department of Foreign Affairs or from the Department of National Defense.
Such incident was a serious act of provocation because it happened at a time when the Philippines was having a joint military exercise with the United States called the Marine Exercise 2022, Nograles said.
He believes the intrusion was deliberate and calculated to measure the government’s reaction to these kinds of incursions, and that this could even be a deliberate move to test the country’s border protection capabilities amid the increasing tension between China and Taiwan.
The recent Chinese trespassing was more alarming than the previously reported cases, he said.
“The whole Philippines should understand that the latest intrusion of China is completely different from the previous ones. The latest intrusion is now within our domestic waters and no longer on our exclusive economic zone so this should really cause some alarm. This
is no longer just an issue about our territorial claims under UNCLOS but this is already a deliberate and outright act of trespassing which is a violation of our Constitution and our domestic laws,” he stressed.
He dismissed assertions of the right to innocent passage by the Chinese government because they deliberately ignored repeated demands by the Philippine Navy through BRP Antonio Luna (FF-151) for them to leave the country’s territory.
“They ignored our challenges through BRP Antonio Luna. China should not ignore the Philippines when they are breaking our laws. My question to China is, what is your true intention? Why do you want to provoke us? While we cannot fight the mighty Chinese military, we need the people to be vigilant as we exercise our right to resist these acts of provocation through diplomatic means. We need also need the world to know that we, as a nation, reject the actions of China through its military,” he said.
“I ask the Navy, Coast Guard, and PNP Maritime Group to fully disclose to the Congress the number of Chinese incursions into Philippine territorial waters and what type of incursions were made so that we can also craft policies and propose actions on how to deal with these issues,” he noted.