Marcos criticized for conciliatory comments on Beijing’s fishing ban in Manila waters

A group of fishermen and others criticized the Philippine president for saying he would coordinate with Beijing on its annual ban on fishing in the disputed South China Sea, including in waters within Manila’s jurisdiction.

China has no right to ban any activity in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ), critics said in responding Thursday to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s comments to reporters about planning ahead of China’s May-August ban. to give fishermen an alternative source of income.

Beijing “has no right to impose a fishing ban” in waters within the Philippine EEZ, said Antonio Carpio, a former Philippine Supreme Court justice and an expert on the South China Sea.

That’s because in 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines when it dismissed China’s expansive claims to the waterway, he said. This was particularly true in the West Philippine Sea, the waters of the South China Sea within the Manila EEZ.

china has been unilaterally impose a fishing moratorium from May to August each year, claiming that this promotes sustainable fishing.

But the Philippines has protested in recent years against this, saying the practice violates its sovereignty. Some areas covered by the fishing ban are in Philippine waters.

“We cannot recognize China’s fishing ban anywhere in our EEZ because that … will recognize China’s nine-dash line, which is the basis of China’s fishing ban,” Carpio told BenarNews, a media outlet. of communication affiliated with RFA, in a message on Thursday. .

The nine dash line is a boundary used by Beijing on its maps to demarcate its territorial claims in the sea.

“The Arbitration Award establishes that China’s nine-point line cannot serve as a basis for claiming waters or resources in the South China Sea,” Carpio said.

During his comments on Tuesday, Marcos made no reference to the validity of the ban or otherwise.

“When there is a fishing ban, we coordinate with them so that we are not surprised that suddenly there is a fishing ban. So we can have some time to plan,” Marcos said, according to transcripts released Thursday.

“When they say that there is going to be a fishing ban in two months, then let’s plan: What will the fishermen do? Let’s give them another livelihood or another source of income.”

Marcos said he had raised the issue of Filipino fishermen’s rights during his meeting with President Xi Jinping when he visited China in January.

“I really put the fishing issue first when we met. I said, let’s not talk about the territory because we are not going to be able to decide now,” Marcos said.

“Let’s prioritize fishing because these people are not to blame, why punish them? So we’re making some progress in that regard.”

“China has no moral ancestry”

The Pamalakaya fishermen’s activist group is not entirely convinced by this argument from the Marcos administration, which believes it “should…reject Beijing’s annual unilateral ban”.

“There should be no room for any compromise or even coordination when it comes to fishing activities in our territorial waters,” Pamalakaya said in a statement on Thursday.

“No amount of alternative source of income could match the fishing livelihood of Filipinos in the resource-rich West Philippine Sea and their important contribution to our local food security.”

Furthermore, Pamalakaya trashed Beijing’s claim on sustainable fishing.

“We remind President Marcos Jr. that China has no moral clout, and especially no legal right, to impose a fishing ban under the guise of marine conservation,” the group said.

“Because it is the one that destroys our biodiversity and marine ecosystem through mass recovery, illegal poaching and industrial fishing expeditions.”

Meanwhile, marine scientists expressed alarm at the destruction of coral reefs in the South China Sea, which are critical to the environment and prevent the collapse of fish stocks, which sustain the livelihoods of tens of millions of people. people.

Some of the reefs in the South China Sea “gone forever” because of the creation of military bases on them, John McManus, a professor of marine biology at the University of Miami in Florida, told Radio Free Asia in October 2020.

Most of that construction has been done by China, which mined Fiery Cross Reef, Subi Reef, Mischief Reef, Woody Island and a few other islets between 2014 and 2017, to make way for artificial islands that now house its military.

BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news outlet.