PCG slams Beijing’s 1990 diplomatic note ‘distortion’

A top Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) official on Sunday dismissed China’s reliance on a 1990 letter from a former ambassador as proof that Manila conceded sovereignty over Scarborough Shoal, calling the move a “deliberate distortion of historical records.”

Rear Adm. Jay Tarriela, the coast guard’s spokesperson for West Philippine Sea concerns, said in a post on X that the document being circulated by Beijing was never an official waiver of sovereignty.

The letter was written in 1990 by then-Ambassador Bienvenido A. Tan Jr. to a German radio hobbyist.

“The PRC’s attempt to present this 1990 letter as proof of Philippine concession over Scarborough Shoal is misleading at best and a deliberate distortion at worst,” Tarriela said.

Tarriela clarified that the correspondence merely noted that the shoal lay outside the colonial boundaries defined in the 1898 Treaty of Paris. However, he stressed that the document affirmed the area falls within the Philippines’ 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone.

The admiral further noted that under international law, an ambassador does not have the authority to waive a country’s territorial claims.

Citing retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, Tarriela argued that only statements from a head of state or a foreign minister can legally bind a nation on issues of sovereignty. He described the letter as “casual correspondence to a private individual” rather than a binding admission by the government.

Scarborough Shoal, known locally as Bajo de Masinloc, has been a major flashpoint since Chinese maritime forces took control of the area following a 2012 standoff. It sits approximately 124 nautical miles off the coast of Zambales.

Tarriela said Beijing’s renewed use of the document ignores the 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which found China’s “nine-dash line” claims have no legal basis under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.