A United States destroyer that sailed in the vicinity waters off Spratly Islands recently did not violate any Philippine laws as it was only exercising freedom of navigation operations (FONOP) as allowed in international law, according to the Philippine Navy (PN).
USS Preble (DDG 88) “asserted navigational rights and freedoms” in the South China Sea near the Spratly Islands when it passed through the area last Dec. 6, according to the US Navy’s 7th Fleet.
The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer also conducted operations while underway in the Philippine Sea last Nov. 30, it added.
Rear Adm. Roy Vincent Trinidad, PN spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea (WPS), said freedom of navigation is allowed under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a legal framework that governs all activities in the world's oceans and seas.
“They are allowed to freely sail under the UNCLOS since all freedom of navigations operations pass the high seas but not a coastal state’s territorial waters,” he explained.
According to the UNCLOS, vessels from other countries need not seek permission of a coastal state when transiting the "high seas" or open oceans of that coastal state provided that their transit shall be exercised by all states "with due regard for the interests of other states in their exercise of the freedom of the high seas."
The situation is different if another state's vessel passes through a coastal state's 12-nautical mile territorial sea which will require them to seek permission from appropriate authorities.
The PN likened the activity of the US Navy to the innocent passage made by Russian attack submarine “UFA 490” which was detected near Oriental Mindoro last Nov. 28.
While the US Navy did not pinpoint the exact location where its warship sailed, it noted that it was close to the features claimed by Malaysia in the Spratly Islands.
The Philippines’ claims in the Spratly Islands, a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea, include the northeast section of the islands (Kalayaan Island Group) but these overlap with the claims of several other nations such as China, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam.
The US Navy earlier justified the presence of USS Preble in the Spratly Islands to challenge the restrictions on innocent passage that were supposedly imposed by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam in the area.
“The unilateral imposition of any authorization or advance-notification requirement for innocent passage is unlawful,” the US Navy said.
“By engaging in innocent passage without giving prior notification to or asking permission from any of the claimants, the United States challenged these unlawful restriction imposed by the PRC [People’s Republic of China], Taiwan, and Vietnam. The United States demonstrated that innocent passage is not subject to such restrictions,” it added.