The Ayungin Shoal incident

QUITE strange is the report made by an American security expert from Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center (GKC) for National Security Innovation, Raymond Powell, through Twitter, alleging that China’s coast guard, on August 8, 2023, fired water cannon at our coast guard in the latter’s attempt to deliver supplies to navy personnel guarding a purposely stranded navy ship Sierra Madre near contested island identified as the “Ayungin Shoal” or Thomas Shoal.

Despite the proximity of the boundary that separates the Philippines from the island of Palawan in what now constitutes the South China Sea, with the edges of the boundary of less than 12 miles under international law, the Philippines, for more than a century, recognized this boundary as legitimate and valid.

Most of those affected were small islands at the periphery of Palawan which were allegedly “discovered” by a Filipino navigator named Tomás Cloma in the 1950s.

Thinking the islands off Palawan were res nullius or not owned by anybody, Cloma claimed them as his private property and sought to have them titled.

Then President Marcos issued P.D. 1529 making the Kalayaan Group of Islands a municipality of Palawan to prevent Cloma from declaring it his private property.

Our claim in some of the disputed islands in the South China Sea is on the basis that, historically, the area has been the rich fishing ground for our fishermen.

But never can the country claim Thomas Shoal or Ayungin Island as a part of the Philippine archipelago.

The map indicating the Philippine archipelago shows Ayungin Shoal has never been made part of the country.

To fully understand the history behind the conflicting claims, it is imperative to know what this Ayungin Shoal is and to recall some chronological events.

We cannot blame China. It was the US and Spain that first demarcated the boundaries in the South China Sea

Hence, “Second Thomas Shoal, also known as Ayungin Shoal is an atoll in the Spratly Islands of the South China Sea, 194 kms west of Palawan.

Claimed by several nations but exclusively located in the economic zone of the Philippines, the atoll is currently militarily occupied by several countries.

Located south-east of the Mischief Reef (09°55′N 115°32′E), Second Thomas Shoal is near the center of Dangerous ground in the north-eastern part of the Spratly Islands; there are no settlements north or east of it.

It is a tear-drop shaped atoll, 20 kms long north–south and fringed with coral reefs. The coral rim surrounds a lagoon which has depths of up to 27 meters and is accessible to small boats from the east.

Drying patches are found east and west of the reef rim.

On 12 July 2016, the tribunal of the Permanent Court of Arbitration concluded that ‘Second Thomas Shoal’ is, or in its natural condition was, exposed at low tide and submerged at high tide and, accordingly, has low-tide elevations that do not generate an entitlement to a territorial sea, exclusive economic zone or continental shelf.

Second Thomas Shoal is claimed by the Philippines and China.

The Philippine navy maintains a presence of less than a dozen navy personnel on the 100 meter-long Second World War US-built Philippine Navy landing craft BRP Sierra Madre (LT-57), deliberately made to run aground the atoll in 1999 in response to the Chinese reclamation of Mischief Reef.

The Philippines claims the atoll is part of its continental shelf, while parts of the Spratly group of islands, where Second Thomas Shoal lies, are claimed by China, Brunei, the Philippines, malaysia and Vietnam.