KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews/06 May) — The National Democratic Front in Mindanao has urged a peaceful political solution to the Scarborough Shoal standoff between the Philippines and China.
Jorge Madlos, alias Ka Oris, NDF Mindanao spokesperson, however, slammed the Chinese incursion in the West Philippine Sea (South ChinaSea) as “an infringement of the sovereign right and patrimony of the Filipino people.”
In an e-mailed statement on Sunday, he urged the Chinese government to immediately “desist from taking injurious steps against the integrity of the Filipino people.”
“We recognize, however, that it has been imbued upon the collective consciousness of the Chinese people that the West Philippine Sea is part of China, as much as Filipinos strongly believe that it is part of the Philippines,” Madlos said.
“Thus, what is at stake here is the very integrity of both peoples. The answer to this inter-territorial dispute, therefore, is not war, but rather a diplomatic political solution between two countries in a third-party international tribunal,” he added.
President Benigno Simeon Aquino last week said the Philippines has a “strong case” on sovereignty over Scarborough Shoal even if the matter is unilaterally raised before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (Itlos).
China had declined to settle the dispute before Itlos, claiming “full historical and jurisprudential evidence for its sovereignty over the Huangyan Island.”
Madlos said that while the United States had expressed a “hands-off policy” in the Scarborough Shoal dispute, it continues with its strategy of “containment and engagement” to hinder China from aggressively expanding in Southeast Asian territories.
America does so by maintaining the forward deployment of US military forces in the region and providing military aid to the Philippines, the communist rebel said.
While NDF-Mindanao denounces Chinese incursion Philippine territory, the Filipino people must equally if not more strongly condemn US imperialist intervention as shown in its direct troop presence in Mindanao and in other parts of our country, which imperils the Philippines by bringing it on the verge of a war against China, he said.
Standoff at the Scarborough Shoal began early April after the Philippines discovered eight Chinese fishing vessels there.
The Philippines sent its biggest warship to the shoal with the intention of arresting the fishermen, but two Chinese government vessels blocked those efforts.
The Philippines pulled back its warship shortly afterwards in an effort to lower the tensions and the initial batch of Chinese fishing vessels left. However both sides kept boats there to assert their sovereignty.
Last week, China sent more ships to the disputed area, with the Philippine military reporting that four Chinese surveillance ships and10 fishing boats were seen off the disputed shoal. (Bong Sarmiento/MindaNews)