Two days after pulling out a ship stationed in the South China Sea following a months-long standoff with rival claimant China, The Philippines insisted on Monday ( Sep 16 ) that it had not given up a reef there.
In April, Manila deployed the coastline guard’s flagship BRP Teresa Magbanua to Sabina Shoal in order to prevent Beijing from constructing an artificial island that, which sits atop some other contentious points in the proper waterway.
However, the ship was immediately called up to Palawan, in western Philippines, with Manila citing injury brought on by a previous conflict with Taiwanese ships, ailing crew members, declining meals, and bad weather.
” We have never lost everything. We did not abandon whatever. According to Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela, who used the Filipino name for Sabina Shoal,” Escoda Shoal is also part of our special economic zone.”
Despite a decision from an international tribunal that found its promises to be unsupported, Beijing still claims the majority of the South China Sea, including Sabina Shoal.
It has acted violently towards Philippine government vessels at Sabina and another contested regions in recent months, ramming, blocking, water-cannoning and yet boarding them, causing harm and injury.
The issue has raised the possibility that Manila’s military allies may be drawn into an armed conflict with China as a result of the clashes.
The BRP Teresa Magbanua’s waters desalinator broke down, forcing the team to depend on rainwater for” for more than a month then” after Chinese ships were harassing resupply operations, according to Tarriela.
He said the staff were also reduced to “eating oatmeal for three months”, which “obviously is no nutritious”.