By Adolfo Quizon Paglinawan

 

First of Three Parts: Sabotaging Diplomacy at the South China Seas

Four days after the country has barely started recovering from the trauma President Marcos dealt on Philippine-China relations after he made a faux pas recognizing the newly-elected president of Taiwan and infuriating China, Philippine Coast Guard Jay Tarriela again preempted the National Task Force and the Department of Foreign Affairs dishing out fake news to the national media.

The headline of the Philippine Daily Inquirer emblazoned “PCG holds video evidence of China Coast Guard harassing Filipino fishers”.

Tarriela said the video was taken by Jack Tabat, a fisherman from Zambales, who was aboard the fishing boat “Legendary Jo” when the incident took place on January 12.

The article continued: “In a sworn statement dated January 20 [eight days after], Tabat said that the fishers were collecting sea shells south of Scarborough Shoal when they saw a rubber boat with five CCG members on board.”

Video don’t support allegations

I went through the video three times, and I saw boats on a sail by, but no harassment. This is the seventh time Tarriela uses video to try to hoodwink his audience, the first was when he presented a rope attached to an anchor claiming they have disabled Chinese nets in the entrance to the Scarbough lagoon.

The second and third was showing water cannons and green laser, which are accepted norms as “non-lethal weapons for law enforcement) by UN Geneva Conventions. The fourth, fifth and sixth were claims of CCG vessels colliding with PCG assets, but the video showed otherwise – PCG assets engaged in dangerous maneuvers that caused PCG assets to collide with CCG vessels. 

According to Tabat, the CCG members used sirens while heading toward the location of the fisher collecting sea shells. Four CCG members then swam to the coral reef where the Filipino fishermen were and ordered them to throw the shells back to the sea. A CCG personnel was also said to have grabbed the fishing boat and prevented it from departing unless the shells were thrown back into the sea. Tabat added that other fishermen were driven away when they tried to approach the coral reef to aid their fellow fisherfolk.

This was what Tarriela said Tabat said. Obviously Tarriela was not in the scene to witness the incident.

In a post on X, after the fact, the PCG commodore confessed to his incompetence – that the PCG is already taking steps to gather sworn statements from the individuals involved and waiting for the arrival of the fishing vessel which was supposedly subjected to harassment to gather testimonies from the fishermen.

This showman just loves the glitter that he makes an incomplete and inconclusive report to the mass media first, before reporting to his own PCG commandant, and to a National Task Force on West Philippine Sea, of which he is only a member.

That PCG Commandant and Vice Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan, and NTF-WPS Chairman and National Security Adviser Eduardo Ano tolerate this insubordination, disrespect for higher authority and sabotaging team or organizational activities, makes them equally incompetent as Tarriela.

It has become clearer and clearer that Tarriela does not defer to his higher ups but to a foreign voice coming from the US Naval Institute. Raymond Powell is the lone ranger and Tarriela is his tonto.

The act of sabotage refers to situations where an individual performs actions aimed at weakening teamwork. In the task force, these situations might include actions against a particular project, initiative or goal.

Sabotaging diplomacy

By the time the DFA, who is mending fences with China and who is also a member of the same task force could no longer process anything, it is all fait accompli – the lying propaganda has been made public.

After the Taiwan statement faux pas of President Marcos that brought Philippine-China relations to its lowest during this administration and close to sanctions by China, the two countries

held the eighth meeting of the China-Philippines Bilateral Consultation Mechanism (BCM) on the South China Sea in Shanghai on January 17 amid rising tensions, especially the situation on the Ren’ai Jiao (also known as Ren’ai Reef).

It also sends a strong signal to the outside world that China and the Philippines can resolve their bilateral disputes through bilateral channels, without the need for external interference and involvement, they noted.

Assistant Foreign Minister Nong Rong co-chaired the meeting with Philippine Undersecretary Theresa Lazaro. Both sides reiterated that South China Sea disputes do not define the entire bilateral relationship and emphasized the importance of communication and dialogue in maintaining maritime peace and stability.

Burt how could any BCM survive, when manageable incidents like Chinese Coast Guard’s enforcements are repackaged by Tarriela-types as harassments? He says the PCG will keep on challenging CCG presence in the West Philippine Seas and will even team up with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources to man their positions whenever their ships are subjected to during rotation of assets

The basic language still denies the asymmetry of our claims with the claims of China. There is a blatant denial of China’s position of “sovereignty” because the Philippine position says “Arbitral ruling has rendered ‘the nine-dash-line’ as having no legal basis, thereupon our ‘sovereign rights’ to an exclusive economic zone extends 200 nautical miles from our shores”.

The facts on the ground

The Chinese Coast Guard was merely conducting law enforcement operations. It was right to apprehend the Filipino fishermen harvesting giant clams at Scarborough Shoal.

First, the area when invoking provisions of UNCLOS provisions on 200 nm EEZ delineation does not apply in and around Scarborough Shoal. The Arbitral tribunal often invoked by the Philippines engaged in lawfare, did not award sovereignty to the area to any party, nor did it award it to any country.

Paragraph “793. Consistent with the limitations on its jurisdiction, the Tribunal has refrained from any decision or comment on sovereignty over Scarborough Shoal.”

On the matter of sovereignty rights, that is exclusivity of pertaining to economic zones, it asserts a common entitlement in:  

Paragraph “805. Based on the record before it, the Tribunal is of the view that Scarborough Shoal has been a traditional fishing ground for fishermen of many nationalities, including the Philippines, China (including from Taiwan), and Viet Nam.”

And then it poses a significant caveat affecting traditional fishing rights and its regulation:

Paragraph “809. The Tribunal notes, however, that traditional fishing rights are not absolute or impervious to regulation. Indeed, the careful regulation of traditional fishing may be necessary for conservation and to restrict environmentally harmful practices. Customary international law, in this respect, does not restrict the coastal State from reasonable regulation.

Thus, we must disabuse Tarriela that China law enforcement affecting Scarborough is “harassment”. It is “protection” of marine resources.

Note the propaganda – when Philippine side harvests giant clams, they are called “fishermen”, when the Chinese side does the same, they are called “poachers”?

When we were still in possession of the Scarborough Shoal area, we also enforced against harvesting giant clams.

But Tarriela is obviously oblivious of that unfortunate incident.

It was the Philippine Navy, a gray ship, not the PCG (white ships) that apprehended Chinese poachers. BRP Granting Gregorio del Pilar had good intentions, being a gray ship its boarding Chinese civilian fishing boats cannot be regarded as law enforcement but a declaration of war on the flag of the vessels they boarded. That is why there was a standoff.

Had the PCG come instead doing the “arrests”, the CCG would have been out of bounds especially because the Philippines was still in possession of the area then. The dynamics would of course change after the Scarborough standoff because we abandoned our position and left it to the Chinese to control the area.

Plainly that is how we lost our ascendancy there. Under customary international law, since China now exercises effective occupation over the Shoal as as souverain or sovereign, it has a duty to protect the marine resources there and regulate fishing practices.

Thus, the private conversation between Tarriela and Karen Davila in television, asserting “Philippine sovereignty rights” in Scarborough is pure hogwash.

Winning the WPS narrative?

Four days before this fake news on Chinese harassing fishermen, Tarriela once again dished out more than plate of unfounded allegations that “The country is winning the narrative war in the West Philippine Sea”  

“I think in terms of the battle as to who really holds the truth and narrative, I think we have been very effective in doing that. So if our fight for sovereignty is [done by] telling the right story, dominating the narrative, I think we are winning…”, Tarriela told INQSide Look.

Nothing is farthest from the truth than this fairy tale.

His American puppet master Raymond Powell of the US Naval Institute, where Tarriela gets most of his materials, has already thrown the towel by asking the Philippines for a “new conversation”.

President Marcos Jr. is also seeking over the New Year for a “new paradigm” on how we have handled the South China Sea issues in 2023.

Only 12 countries have been added among those supporting  the 2016 Arbitral award, including the United States and its allies. The earlier European Union announcement that it also did has been made tentative by the ambivalence of France and Germany.

Worst but not the least, the 7% support of Filipinos for “protecting Philippine territory from foreign aggression” in the Pulse Asia September survey deteriorated by 1 point to 6% last December.

Rumors have it Tarriela is looking for another job contemplating of running for Congress for the sole seat of Mindoro Occidental to replace his brother.

Who knows? Maybe his conversion from a prevaricator to a legislator might make him lead in correcting our laws that have severely weakened our claims in the figment of his imagination involving the fictitious “West Philippine Seas”.

After all he still has to makeover from cheating in the Management science examinations the Philippine Military Academy, when he was a plebe in 2003, for which he had to leave the school for violating its honor code.

Would a move to the “congress of baboons” make any difference?

Thinktank response

The Manila Times, however, reported a Manila-based think tank on Monday belying the PCG’s claim that the CCG harassed the Filipino fishermen, saying what happened may have been a ‘legitimate conservation action’ by the Chinese government to prevent poachers from harvesting endangered marine species.

‘The derogatory allegations of [PCG spokesman on West Philippine Sea Commo. Jay Tarriela] is irresponsible and inexcusable, as he admits he has no solid basis for the slanderous allegations when he says in the report that the PCG is still awaiting the arrival of the fishing vessel which was allegedly subjected to the CCG harassment,’ Asian Century Philippines Strategic Studies Institute (ACPSSI) President Herman Tiu Laurel told The Manila Times.

Laurel said the meeting in Shanghai’ already cooled the atmosphere between the two countries,’ and Tarriela’ seems to attempt to throw a monkey wrench into the talks.’

The Department of Foreign Affairs and PCG officials’ should admonish and refrain him from shooting from the hip,’ said Laurel. “But a Manila-based think tank on Monday belied the PCG’s claim that the CCG harassed the Filipino fishermen, saying what happened may have been a ‘legitimate conservation action’ by the Chinese government to prevent poachers from harvesting endangered marine species.

‘The derogatory allegations of [PCG spokesman on West Philippine Sea Commo. Jay Tarriela] is irresponsible and inexcusable, as he admits he has no solid basis for the slanderous allegations when he says in the report that the PCG is still awaiting the arrival of the fishing vessel which was allegedly subjected to the CCG harassment,’ Asian Century Philippines Strategic Studies Institute (ACPSSI) President Herman Tiu Laurel told The Manila Times.

Laurel said the meeting in Shanghai’ already cooled the atmosphere between the two countries,’ and Tarriela’ seems to attempt to throw a monkey wrench into the talks.’

The Department of Foreign Affairs and PCG officials’ should admonish and refrain him from shooting from the hip,’ said Laurel.

To be continued:

Next Part: Understanding Further the United Nations’ One-China Policy

   

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