No approval from China needed to sail near Bajo de Masinloc – DFA

The Department of Foreign Affairs Building. (File photo: Department of Foreign Affairs, Republic of the Philippines/Facebook)

MANILA – The Philippine government, through the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), on Thursday chided China for decrying the entry of a Filipino warship in the nearby waters of Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough Shoal), reminding them that the area is “part of” the Philippines’ administrative responsibility.

The DFA said the Philippines has no obligation to get an approval from China to sail in its own territorial sea.

“The Philippines’ conduct of maritime patrols in the waters around Bajo de Masinloc is a legitimate and routine act of a sovereign country in its territory and territorial sea and is part of the Philippines’ administrative responsibility,” it said in a statement.

“There is no obligation for the Philippines as the sovereign state to seek the approval of another when navigating its own territorial sea,” it added.

The statement comes after the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Southern Theater Command said it warned off and “restricted” the BRP Conrado Yap (PS-39) after it entered the waters “adjacent to China’s Huangyan Dao” without the approval of the Chinese government on Oct. 30.

READ: US calls out China for shadowing PH Navy vessel near Bajo de Masinloc

China claims it has sovereignty over Bajo de Masinloc, which it calls Huangyan Dao or Huangyan Island.

“The statement of the Southern Theater Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, alleging that the BRP Conrado Yap (PS39) intruded in the waters near Bajo de Masinloc on 30 October 2023, has no legal basis and only serves to raise tensions in the West Philippine Sea,” the DFA said.

“Bajo de Masinloc is an integral part of the Philippine territory and over which the Philippines has sovereignty and jurisdiction,” it added.

The DFA added that the Arbitral Tribunal has already upheld in 2016 the status of Bajo de Masinloc as a “high-tide feature that has no exclusive economic zone (EEZ) or continental shelf of its own as opposed to an island”.

Beyond the territorial sea of Bajo de Masinloc, the DFA said, is the EEZ and continental shelf generated from the main Philippine archipelago, over which the Philippines exercises sovereign rights and jurisdiction.

The DFA added that the 2016 Arbitral Award has categorically declared that China’s claims to historic rights within its so-called “nine-dash line” in the South China Sea “are contrary” to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

“It is China that is intruding into Philippine waters,” it said

”Chinese authorities are reminded that its apparent exercise of maritime law enforcement powers, interference with Philippine vessels, harassment and intimidation of Filipino fisherfolk, or any other activity that infringes upon the Philippines’ sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction in Bajo de Masinloc and the West Philippine Sea are violations of international law, particularly UNCLOS and the Arbitral Award,” it added.

The ring-shaped coral reef is located 124 nautical miles off Masinloc, Zambales and is well within the Philippines’ 200-nautical-mile EEZ.

The feature is at least 472 nautical miles away from the nearest coast of China.