THE Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Thursday objected to Beijing’s recent moves to give Chinese names to some features in the Kalayaan Island Group (KIG), a municipality of the Philippines’s Palawan province.
The DFA said “it does not recognize the Chinese names” given to the features, adding: “The Philippine government strongly protests the establishment of the so-called districts of ‘Nansha’ and ‘Xisha’ under the supposed administrative jurisdiction of its self-declared ‘Sansha City’ announced on April 18, 2020, by the People’s Republic of China.”
Earlier this month, Beijing established the districts of Nansha (Spratly Islands) and Xisha (Paracel Islands), which would be under the administrative jurisdiction of its self-declared Sansha City.
Last week, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr., filed two diplomatic protests against China, first on the issue of China’s ships pointing a laser gun at Philippine Navy vessels and second, China’s naming of Philippine features in the West Philippine Sea.
China’s latest moves in the South China Sea is seen as taking advantage of a situation where the Philippines and the rest of the world are preoccupied with the deadly Covid-19, which first emerged from Wuhan City in December last year.
“The Philippines calls on China to adhere to international law, including the UNCLOS [UN Conventiion on the Law of the Sea], as well as to the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, specifically Paragraph 5 thereof, under which parties undertake to exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities that would complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace and stability,” said the DFA’s Thursday statement.
“The establishment and supposed extent of jurisdiction of ‘Sansha City’ of which the new two districts are part, violate Philippine territorial sovereignty over the Kalayaan Island Group and Bajo de Masinloc, and infringes on Philippine sovereign rights over the waters and continental shelf in the West Philippine Sea,” added the DFA statement.
The DFA said the Philippine government has protested “since 2012 China’s unlawful establishment of Sansha City and the extent of its administrative jurisdiction, which encompasses Philippine territory and maritime zones in the West Philippine Sea.
“It does not recognize Sansha, nor its constituent units, nor any subsequent acts emanating from them,” the DFA added.
The Philippines also objects to and does not recognize the Chinese names given to some features in the Kalayaan Island Group.
According to the DFA, the International Tribunal in The Hague has comprehensively addressed China’s excessive claims and illegal actions in the South China Sea.
The Philippines protested as well the illegal designation of Kagitingan Reef within the KIG as administrative center for the so-called “Nansha district”.
“Kagitingan Reef is within the Kalayaan Island Group and is thus an integral part of Philippine territory.”
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