(Manila) The Philippine coast guard announced Monday that it had dismantled a floating barrier, installed by China according to Manila, which prevented access by Filipino fishermen to a disputed reef in the South China Sea.
In a statement, the coastguard said it had “successfully” removed the barrier from Scarborough Reef “in accordance with the direction of the Presidency”.
“The barrier represented a danger to navigation, a clear violation of international law,” added sea surveillance agents, who published a video showing a man wearing a mask, snorkel and fins cutting a rope attached to ropes with a knife. white buoys.
Earlier, Philippine national security adviser Eduardo Ano said the Southeast Asian archipelago would take “all appropriate measures” to secure the removal of the barrier.
Mr. Ano stressed that the latter “violated the traditional fishing rights of Filipino fishermen,” confirmed by the 2016 decision” of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.
“Indisputable sovereignty”
A 300-meter-long floating device was discovered last week at the entrance to Scarborough Reef, which China took control of in 2012 at the expense of the Philippines.
It blocked access to the atoll-shaped reef, with shallow waters rich in fishing resources.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said Monday that China has “indisputable sovereignty over this reef and its surrounding waters.”
For its part, the Philippine Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared that it would “take all appropriate measures to protect the sovereignty (of the Philippines) and the livelihoods of (their) fishermen”, without giving further details.
China claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea – an important crossroads of maritime trade routes -, to the dismay of several riparian countries.
Scarborough Reef is 240 kilometers west of the Philippines’ main island, Luzon, and nearly 900 kilometers from the Chinese island of Hainan, south of mainland China.
Under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which China helped develop, countries have the sovereign right to exploit natural resources within a radius of about 200 miles (370 km). ) of their ribs.
In 2013, the Philippines initiated international arbitration proceedings against China. The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled in favor of Manila in 2016, ruling that there was “no legal basis for China to claim historical rights” over most of this sea and its resources.
Beijing refused to take part in the proceedings and ignored the ruling.