Chinese watch as Filipinos fish by disputed island
Print Edition
CHINESE coast guard ships were still guarding a disputed island in the South China Sea, but they did not stop Filipinos from fishing there for the first time in years, the Philippine defense secretary said yesterday.
The fishermen’s return to the Huangyan Island was “a most welcome development” because it brings back their key source of livelihood, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said.
China granted access to the tiny, uninhabited shoal after Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte met President Xi Jinping and other Chinese leaders this month. After his China trip, Duterte said without elaborating that Filipinos may be able to return to the shoal soon.
A Philippine navy plane spotted four Chinese coast guard ships around the shoal during a surveillance flight on Saturday, Lorenzana said, adding that an earlier report by the Philippine coast guard that the Chinese had left the area was incorrect.
“Flybys of our planes reported Chinese coast guard ships are still there, but our fishermen were fishing unmolested,” Lorenzana said.
It’s unclear how long China would keep the shoal open to Filipinos.
National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said, “There are no written agreements or rules, but Filipino fishermen who went there lately attest that they were not driven away nor were accosted.”
Since 2012, Chinese coast guard ships had driven Filipino fishermen away from the island.
The new development brought joy to the first Filipinos who ventured back to the island in flotillas of small fishing boats.
“We’re happy that we were able to sail back there,” said Gil Bauya, who returned on Saturday with a huge catch of red snapper and other fish to Cato village in the northwestern province of Pangasinan.
“They just let us fish,” Bauya said, referring to three Chinese coast guard ships fishermen saw at the Huanyang from a distance. “We were waiting what they would do, but they didn’t do anything like deploying small rubber boats to chase us like they used to do.”
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