Manila, Philippines — The Philippines on Monday blamed Chinese fishermen for a massive loss of giant clams on a disputed sandbar controlled by the Chinese coast guard in the South China Sea and urged an international investigation into the amount of environmental damage in the area.
The Philippine coast guard presented surveillance photographs of Chinese fishermen catching large quantities of giant clams over several years in a lagoon in Scarborough Shoal, but said signs of such activities ceased in March 2019.
Parts of the surrounding coral appeared to be severely scarred, in what the coast guard said was apparently a futile search by the Chinese for more clams. The lagoon is an important fishing area that the Filipinos call Bajo de Masinloc and the Chinese call Huangyan Dao off the northwestern Philippines.
“Those were the last giant clams we saw in Bajo de Masinloc,” Philippine coast guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said at a news conference.
“We are alarmed and concerned about the situation that is happening there,” said National Security Council deputy director general Jonathan Malaya. He said China should allow an independent investigation by United Nations experts and environmental groups.
The Chinese embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Beijing has repeatedly asserted its sovereignty over much of the crowded South China Sea. Territorial disputes involve China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan. The Indonesian navy has also been involved in skirmishes with the Chinese coast guard and fishing vessels in the waters of Natuna, on the margins of the South China Sea.
The Philippines has adopted a policy of publicizing China’s increasingly assertive actions in the disputed waters to garner international support, and the press conference was its latest effort to condemn China’s management of Scarborough Shoal.
China effectively seized the sandbar in 2012 after a standoff that ended when Philippine government ships withdrew based on what Manila said was a deal brokered by U.S. officials to ease the dangerous confrontation. China reneged on its promise to withdraw its ships and has since surrounded the sandbar with coast guard and suspected militia boats, according to Philippine officials.
Since then, the Chinese coast guard has had a series of skirmishes with Philippine patrol vessels and fishing boats, which have been prevented from entering the lagoon, surrounded by mostly submerged coral outcrops. Three weeks ago, Chinese ships fired powerful water cannons that damaged Philippine coast guard and fishing vessels.
“They are preventing us from entering the lagoon,” Malaya said. “We can ask outside environmental groups or even the United Nations to conduct a fact-finding mission to determine the environmental situation.”
The Philippines has taken its territorial disputes with China to international arbitration and largely won. The 2016 ruling invalidated China’s extensive claims to much of the South China Sea, a key global trade route, on historical grounds and cited actions by the Chinese government that resulted in environmental damage in the coastal region.
China refused to participate in the arbitration, rejected its ruling and continues to challenge it.
The territorial hostilities have raised fears of a larger conflict that could involve the United States, which has warned that it is obligated to defend the Philippines, its long-time ally, if Philippine forces, ships and aircraft come under armed attack. even in the South China Sea.
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Associated Press writers Joeal Calupitan and Aaron Favila contributed to this report.
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