AFP to China’s ‘indisputable sovereignty’ claims over Ayungin Shoal: ‘It’s disputable’
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China's "indisputable claim" over the Ayungin Shoal in the West Philippine Sea is "disputable."
This was the response of the Armed Forces of the Philippines on Saturday after China condemned the Philippines conduct of rotation and resupply mission for the troops stationed in BRP Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal, a submerged reef in the Spratly Islands that is located 105 nautical miles west of Palawan.
Coast Guard spokesperson Gan Yu recently claimed that two supply ships and two coast guard vessels from the Philippines "intruded into the adjacent waters of Ren'ai Reef in China's Nansha Islands without the permission of the Chinese government" on 4 October.
"China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands, including the Ren'ai Reef, and its adjacent waters, and firmly opposes the illegal delivery of construction materials by the Philippines to the illegally grounded warship," Gan said.
AFP spokesperson Col. Medel Aguilar refuted Gan's use of the word "indisputable."
"The use of the word "indisputable" is disputable. For the reason that number one, the UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) says that they don't have sovereignty over the terrain," he said in a weekly news forum in Quezon City.
"That's very far from Nansha, so how can they exercise sovereignty in a low-tide elevation that is not even subject to appropriation or possession?", he added.
Aguilar, meanwhile, slammed Gan for his remarks and stressed that China has no business to intrude on the Philippines' missions in its exclusive economic zone.
"What we do to our BRP Sierra is none of their business, because it's our responsibility and they should not interfere," he said.
"We will find out how the situation will improve further because it cannot be always this way, that there will be harassments, that there will be blocking operations or some kind of blocking, and shadowing and all those harassments," he added.
Despite these incidents in the WPS, Aguilar "confidently" noted that the morale of soldiers deployed in the AFP's Western Command "remains high."
"They are determined to do, to work harder, to make sure that the interest of the country is protected," he said.
