US backs PH in new dispute...

military aircraft on patrol in the South China Sea and other spots in the Pacific.

Despite friendly overtures to Beijing by former president Rodrigo Duterte and his successor, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in January in Beijing, tensions have persisted, drawing in a closer military alliance between the Philippines and the U.S.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Monday, February 13 that a Philippine coast guard vessel trespassed into Chinese waters without permission.

Chinese coast guard vessels responded “professionally and with restraint at the site in accordance with China’s law and international law,” he said, without elaborating or mentioning the use of laser.

Marcos, Chinese envoy discuss sea rift after...

The Philippines has filed a diplomatic protest following the Ayungin Shoal incident.

China, however, asserted that the Philippines intruded into Chinese territory (Ren’ai Reef), and hence took action.

The Philippines has sovereign rights in the West Philippine

Sea, based on the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s 2016 ruling.

China, however, refuses to recognize the court’s verdict. g

Aside from China and the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also have overlapping claims in the resource-rich and busy waterway, where a bulk of the world’s commerce and oil transits.

Washington lays no claims to the disputed sea but has deployed forces to patrol the waters to promote freedom of navigation and overflight — moves that have angered Beijing, which has warned Washington to stop meddling in what it says is a purely Asian dispute. The contested waters have become a volatile front in the broader rivalry between the U.S. and China in Asia and beyond.

Price said the Chinese coast guard’s “provocative and unsafe” conduct interfered with the Philippines’ “lawful operations” in and around Second Thomas Shoal.

In July, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on China to comply with a 2016 arbitration ruling that invalidated Beijing’s vast territorial claims in the South China Sea and warned that Washington was obligated to defend the Philippines under the Mutual Defense Treaty.

On Monday, Price reiterated that the “legally binding decision” underscored that China “has no lawful maritime claims to the Second Thomas Shoal.”

China has long rejected the ruling and continues to defy it.

Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin on Monday insisted that the Ren’ai Reef is part of China’s Nansha Islands.

In a statement shared by the Chinese Embassy in Manila, Wang said that on February 6, a Philippine Coast Guard vessel “intruded into the waters off the Ren’ai Reef (or Ayungin Shoal) without Chinese permission.”

He said that in accordance with China’s domestic law and international law, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos), the China Coast Guard ship “upheld China’s sovereignty and maritime order and acted in a professional and restrained way.”

“We hope the Philippine side will respect China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea and avoid taking any actions that may exacerbate disputes and complicate the situation,” he said.

“China and the Philippines are in communication on this through diplomatic channels,” Wang added.

Sen. Ana Theresia “Risa” Hontiveros, however, rejected Wang’s explanation.

“China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) is lying,” she said.

“It cannot claim that the Chinese Coast Guard ship acted in accordance with international law, when the 2016 arbitral tribunal that ruled against China’s baseless 9-dash-line claim was constituted precisely under the Unclos,” she said in a statement.

The senator said Ayungin is part of the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone. “The Unclos affirms this.”

“The wider international community recognizes this. It is only China’s authoritarian government that seems to think otherwise,” Hontiveros said.

She told China’s MoFA “to stop lying and stick to the truth: that China is using her military might to justify her blatant and dangerous disregard for international law, with her flimsy historical ‘claim’ as an excuse.”

The Philippines filed nearly 200 diplomatic protests against China’s aggressive actions in the disputed waters in 2022 alone. (With reports from Associated Press)

SWS: 75% of Pinoys satisfied...

-30 to -49 as “bad”; -50 to -69 as “very bad” and -70 and below as “execrable.”

Highest in Mindanao

According to SWS, Marcos obtained his highest satisfaction rating among respondents in Mindanao, with 78 percent in both during the October and December surveys.

Satisfaction with the President increased to 74 percent in both Balance Luzon and the Visayas, from 69 percent and 65 percent, respectively. It remained at 73 percent among those in Metro

Manila.

Meanwhile, dissatisfaction was highest in Metro Manila at nine percent (from seven percent in October), followed by the Visayas at seven percent (from nine percent) and rest of Luzon and Mindanao at six percent (from nine percent and five percent, respectively).

Based on the latest survey, satisfaction with Marcos was higher among those in rural areas (80 percent) than in urban areas (70 percent). It was also higher among men (77 percent) than women (73 percent).

In terms of age groups, satisfaction with Marcos was highest among 25-34 (80 percent), followed by those in 18-24 (76 percent), 35-44 (75 percent), 45-54 (74 percent) and above 55 (71 percent).

It was also higher among junior high school graduates (78 percent) and non-elementary graduates (77 percent), followed by elementary graduates (71 percent) and college graduates (67 percent).

The December 2022 survey had 1,200 respondents and a margin of error of +/- 2.8 percent. g