THE Department of Foreign Affairs served notice on Tuesday that Manila will ignore Beijing’s “unilateral imposition” of a 14-week fishing moratorium in the South China Sea running until August, as it breaches the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos).
In a statement, DFA said “China’s annual fishing moratorium extends far beyond China’s legitimate maritime entitlements under Unclos and is without basis under international law.”
China, added DFA, “cannot legally impose nor legally enforce such a moratorium in the West Philippine Sea.”
The DFA said the “Philippines strongly urges China to desist from any action and activity that infringes on Philippine sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction, in contravention of international law.”
The unilateral ban was announced by China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, and covers “waters north of 12 degrees north latitude” in the South China Sea, said DFA, adding, “These waters include areas over which the Philippines exercises sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction.”
Manila’s notice that it would defy the ban comes on the heels of a flurry of diplomatic protests against China’s sending of nearly 300 maritime militia boats in the WPS beginning early March. Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro L. Locsin Jr. had earlier vowed the DFA would file a protest “for every day” the boats are not pulled out.
According to Paragraph 716 of the Award of the South China Sea Arbitration rendered on 12 July 2016, China, by promulgating its moratorium on fishing in the South China Sea, “without exception for areas of the South China Sea falling within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines and without limiting the moratorium to Chinese flagged vessels, breached Article 56 of the 1982 Unclos with respect to the Philippines’ sovereign rights over the living resources of its exclusive economic zone,” the DFA said Tuesday night. The 2016 Arbitral Award also affirmed the traditional and legitimate fishing rights of Filipino fishermen, it added.
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