By VICTOR REYES
MALAYA
MALAYA
THE military has completed the rotation and provisioning of its troops at Ayungin Shoal in the disputed Spratly Islands without any interference from China whose ships continued to stay in the area, Armed Forces chief Gen. Emmanuel Bautista said yesterday.
“We have rotated (and delivered supplies). We do that periodically, including rotation. We are re-supplying them (troops) and rotating…We do that on a regular basis…We just completed it this month,” Bautista said.
A Navy ship is usually utilized in the re-provisioning and rotation of troops in the Spratly Islands.
Asked if the military was blocked by China, Bautista said, “There’s none, there is no interference.”
Bautista said at least two Chinese government ships are still in the vicinity of the Philippine-occupied shoal, which is about 120 nautical miles from Rizal, Palawan.
Bautista said the military has no problem with the continued Chinese presence in the shoal as long as the Chinese are not hampering freedom of navigation. So far, he said, China has not made any “aggressive moves.”
“How concerned are we? As far as we are concerned, we are non-confrontational. As long are there is no hampering of our movements, they allow freedom of navigation, that’s not a problem to us,” he said.
“Ours is to show the flag in our territory, ours is to protect our interest,” added Bautista.
Last month, the Department of Foreign Affairs filed a diplomatic protest against China after monitoring 30 Chinese fishing boats, escorted by a Chinese Navy frigate and two maritime surveillance ships.
There have been fears that China would not allow Philippine troops to be provisioned in Ayungin Shoal so that they would be forced to leave and the Chinese ships could take over the shoal.
Meanwhile, Manuel Pangilinan, chairman of Philex Petroleum, told reporters in Camp Aguinaldo that talks with China for joint oil explorations at Recto Bank in the West Philippine Sea are still in the “very preliminary” stage.
Asked how the territorial dispute is affecting the exploration talks, Pangilinan said, “I think it’s fair to state that we are just dealing with purely business issues with CNOOC (China National Offshore Oil Corp.”
Philex was supposed to conduct oil exploration at the Recto Bank in October last year when its ship was harassed by two Chinese ships. The Chinese told the oil explorers to leave, claiming Recto is part of China.
“We’re neither authorized nor qualified to talk about government issues. We made it very clear to CNOOC that we are not authorized to talk about government issues, so that’s why the talks are very preliminary at this stage,” said Pangilinan.
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