Advocate group: Speak as one country vs. 'incursion'
The National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS) is looking into reports that China has begun deep-sea drilling in the South China Sea to obtain sedimentary rocks from the seabed.
This developed as calls for the Duterte administration to stand up against China's repeated intrusion have been growing.
National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr., chairman of the NTF-WPS, said they have yet to receive a report about China's drilling activities which is reportedly being done within the country's 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
"Wala pa akong report niyan (I have no report about that), not in our area that I know," he told the Manila Bulletin on Monday, April 19.
However, Esperon vowed that the NTF-WPS "will verify" the reported drilling activities of China.
China's state news agency, Xinhua, bared that Chinese scientists have completed a deep-sea drilling project last April 3 in the waters of South China Sea. China has been claiming almost all of the South China Sea.
Xinhua said that an independently-developed drilling system called "Sea Bull II" obtained sediment core with a length of 231 meters from the seabed 2,060 meters under the sea.
However, the state news agency did not specify where the drilling activity took place. There are overlapping maritime claims among China, Philippines, Brunei, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam in the South China Sea.
Esperon's remarks came just as a group of Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) graduates from the University of the Philippines (UP) urged the government to "speak as one country" against the apparent incursion of China in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), a part of South China Sea that is located within the country's EEZ.
In a statement, the UP Vanguard Inc. expressed "grave concern" over the continued presence of several Chinese vessels at the Julian Felipe Reef.
Over 240 Chinese maritime militia vessels, military, and coast guard ships were dispersed in the entire WPS -- including at Julian Felipe Reef -- and parts of Kalayaan Island Group as of April 11, according to the NTF-WPS.
"The situation at the Julian Felipe Reef brings to mind the same reasoning used by China in occupying and eventually fortifying Mischief Reef. It lacked the sincerity of its promise and words that the Philippine government then relied on. It lacked honor," said Guido Alfredo Delgado, national commander of the UP Vanguard.
He was referring to China's apparent militarization of the Mischief (Panganiban) Reef, located in the Spratly Islands or Kalayaan Island Group, which reportedly started in 2014.
Delgado said that the UP Vanguard is backing the calls of Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. for the immediate withdrawal of the vessels from the Julian Felipe Reef before it suffers the same fate as the Mischief Reef.
"Two high officials have spoken loud. But we must speak as one country," Delgado said.
"We, therefore, call on the government to continue its resolve and walk the talk. We cannot just make noise. Rather, we must make China accountable and exhaust all peaceful means available to ensure that the 2012 PCA decision in our favor is respected and enforced," he stressed, referring to the landmark ruling that rejected China's mythical nine-dash line claims in the South China Sea in favor of the Philippines.
"It is not only our duty to speak out, but it is also our honor to stand for and defend our country!" he concluded.