Gazmin, Chinese envoy hold talks to ease tensions over Ayungin boat sightings

Jaime Sinapit, Interaksyon.com

MANILA, Philippines – Amid rising tension caused by more boat sightings by either side in past days in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and Chinese Ambassador Ma Que King met at Camp Aguinaldo Wednesday, vowing to step up “cooperation” and “exchanges” this year.

In an ambush interview, Gazmin said the Chinese side appeared alarmed that Philippine military boats near Ayungin Reef, where Chinese vessels have been sighted the past three weeks, might have been there because Manila is building new structures on the site, one of three reefs and seven islets that compose the municipality of Kalayaan Island Group (KIG) in Palawan.

Gazmin said he assured Ambassador Ma no structures were being built, and that the boats were there to re-supply the Filipino soldiers assigned in the area.

For his part, the Navy Flag Officer in Command, Vice Admiral Jose Luis Alano said they will not pull out the Marines from Ayungin.

“As far as we are concerned the re-provision will be going on to be able to sustain our people who are deployed in western Philippines,” he said.

“[We have] to ensure that we will be able to provide the necessary facilities for the safety and habitation of our personnel, particularly [those] deployed in hazardous and difficult areas, and this is one of the things that we are trying to do.”

Referring to the Navy’s regular sovereignty patrols in the West Philippine Sea, Alano stressed,“The ship is always an extension of the territory of a nation. It flies the national flag from sunrise to sunset.”

In an ambush interview after meeting Gazmin, Beijing’s ambassador said her government is also looking for solutions to ease tensions over the Spratlys (South China Sea) dispute.

Ambassador Ma said, “We also talked about the balanced relations. I think China is ready to develop cooperation and very good exchanges between the two sides because this year is the year of friendly exchanges between our two countries. So we are ready to promote the cooperation and exchanges between the two countries.”

The Chinese official did not elaborate as she was in a rush to leave.

Besides the Philippines and China, others that claim parts or all of the Spratlys are Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei.

New structures at Ayungin?

In a separate ambush interview, Gazmin said that in the dialogue, China expressed worry about new structures being constructed by Philippine forces on Ayungin Reef.

"They were concerned [we will be] coming up with structures, additional structures in the Ayungin Reef and I told her that the ship moving towards Ayungin is only for provisions of food and water for soldiers who are there,” he said.

For three weeks now, Chinese frigates, marine chips and fishing vessels have intruded into Ayungin and reportedly hauled marine resources, including corals from the area.

Gazmin explained that the “cooperation” that the Chinese ambassador was talking about pertains to Ayungin.

“[The] cooperation is in terms of not violating the verbal agreement to build new structures and we told them that our vessels that come to Ayungin are resupply of food and water provisions for our troops stationed there. We also told them we need to rotate our troops there from time to time,” he said.

Gazmin said China was in the area to “monitor our ships.” Beijing had suspected these to be delivering construction materials.

He said the dialogue could be the start of a new beginning between the Asian neighbors in order to peacefully resolve the territorial dispute, even as the country has already raised the issue to the international arbitral court of the United Nations, a move which China strongly protested.  


Gazmin acknowledged, “Threat is always there but we do follow some protocols like avoidance of dangerous maneuvers, avoidance of confrontational moves. So right now, it’s holding and we make sure that when go there like we do regularly and routinely in moving our logistics, we are unarmed.”