Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana turned down Wednesday, April 28, the request of China to the Philippines to cease the conduct of maritime exercises in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).
"They have no authority or legal basis to prevent us from conducting these exercises within the West Philippine Sea. Atin 'yan (It is ours)," Lorenzana said.
The Defense Chief was reacting to a remark made by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin on Monday who urged the Philippines to "respect China's sovereignty and rights" in the WPS by stopping the joint drills being conducted by the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR).
The PCG and BFAR have been conducting maritime exercises near Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough or Panatag Shoal) and Pagasa (Thitu) Island starting on April 22. The drills will last for 10 days.
"Their claims according to their so-called historical rights have no basis while we have two international documents saying the area is ours: The UNCLOS and the Arbitral award of 2016," Lorenzana stressed.
The UNCLOS is a treaty which gave the Philippines sovereign rights to exploit all the natural resources in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) or the waters within 200 nautical miles from its mainland. Both the Philippines and China are signatories of the UNCLOS.
Meanwhile, the 2016 ruling issued by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) categorically stated that there is no basis to China's claim in the WPS which is bounded by their so-called nine dash line reasoning.
"Therefore, it is who are encroaching and should desist and leave," Lorenzana said.
However, China is not honoring the tribunal ruling and the UNCLOS.
Wenbin insisted that Manila should "stop actions complicating the situation and escalating disputes" in the West Philippine Sea, which he claimed some parts as belonging to China's territory.
In response, Lorenzana said: "It is who are complicating the situation by their illegal occupation of reefs which they built into artificial islands."
"They are the ones complicating the situation by insisting to stay within our WPS," he added.
In a separate television interview over CNN Philippines, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon said there were at least nine vessels that remained at the Julian Felipe (Whitsun) Reef from as high as 220 vessels on March 7.
However, majority of the Chinese vessels only dispersed in the Kalayaan Island Group and other parts of the WPS, and did not actually leave the Philippine waters.
"We are currently studying this. We know some of them are fishing vessels, some are maritime militias," said Esperon, chairman of the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS).
"If you have over 200 there, if they are fishing vessels, then they could be getting so much fish. If they are Chinese maritime militia, then they are a force to reckon with," he added.