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Volunteers of Atin Ito and members of the media embark board four main vessels at the Matalbis Port in Masinloc, Zambales for the second civilian resupply mission to the West Philippine Sea on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. The civilian convoy aims to hand out fuel, food and other necessities to fisherfolk at the Bajo de Masinloc or Panatag Shoal.  Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News

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VolunteersAtin-Ito-05152024.jpg

Associated Press

<div><ivs-player data-ivs-key="e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603" data-ivs-spid="3001339" data-ivs-vid="3037010"></ivs-player></div><script src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/js/loader.js"></script><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">MANILA — A flotilla of about 100 mostly small fishing boats led by Filipino activists sailed Wednesday to a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, where Beijing’s coast guard and suspected militia ships have used powerful water cannons to ward off what they regard as intruders.</span><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><br/></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The Philippine coast guard and navy deployed one patrol ship each to keep watch from a distance on the activists and fishermen, who set off on wooden boats with bamboo outriggers to assert Manila’s sovereignty over the Scarborough Shoal. Dozens of journalists joined the three-day voyage.</span><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><br/></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Activists and volunteers, including a Roman Catholic priest, belonging to a nongovernment coalition called Atin Ito — Tagalog for This is Ours — planned to float small territorial buoys and distribute food packs and fuel to Filipino fishermen near the shoal, organizers said, adding they were prepared for contingencies.</span><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><br/></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">“Our mission is peaceful based on international law and aimed at asserting our sovereign rights,” said Rafaela David, a lead organizer. “We will sail with determination, not provocation, to civilianize the region and safeguard our territorial integrity.”</span><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><br/></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">In December, David’s group with boatloads of fishermen also tried to sail to another disputed shoal but cut short the trip after being tailed by a Chinese ship.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><br/></div><div><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/2024/5/14/2nd-civilian-mission-to-west-philippine-sea-to-avoid-china-water-cannons-843" id="isPasted" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2nd civilian mission to West Philippine Sea to avoid China water cannons</a></div><div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:950px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1715738246111VolunteersAtin-Ito-05152024.jpg" style="width:950px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Volunteers of Atin Ito and members of the media embark board four main vessels at the Matalbis Port in Masinloc, Zambales for the second civilian resupply mission to the West Philippine Sea on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. The civilian convoy aims to hand out fuel, food and other necessities to fisherfolk at the Bajo de Masinloc or Panatag Shoal.  Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left"><span dir="ltr" id="isPasted">Volunteers of Atin Ito and members of the media embark board four main vessels at the Matalbis Port in Masinloc, Zambales for the second civilian resupply mission to the West Philippine Sea on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. The civilian convoy aims to hand out fuel, food and other necessities to fisherfolk at the Bajo de Masinloc or Panatag Shoal.  <em>Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News</em></span><em> </em></span></span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">China effectively seized the Scarborough Shoal, a triangle-shaped atoll with a vast fishing lagoon ringed by mostly submerged coral outcrops, by surrounding it with its coast guard ships after a tense 2012 standoff with Philippine government ships.</span><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><br/></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Angered by China’s action, the Philippine government brought the disputes to international arbitration in 2013 and largely won with a tribunal in The Hague ruling three years later that China’s expansive claims based on historical grounds in the busy seaway were invalid under the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.</span><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><br/></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The ruling declared the Scarborough Shoal a traditional fishing area for Chinese, Filipino and Vietnamese fishermen. In the past, fishermen have anchored in the shoal to avoid huge waves in the high seas in stormy weather.</span><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><br/></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">China refused to participate in the arbitration, rejected the outcome and continues to defy it.</span><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><br/></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Two weeks ago, Chinese coast guard and suspected militia ships used water cannons on Philippine coast guard and fisheries boats patrolling the Scarborough Shoal, damaging both craft.</span><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><br/></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The Philippines condemned the Chinese coast guard’s action on the shoal, which lies in the Southeast Asian nation’s internationally recognized exclusive economic zone. The Chinese coast guard said it took a “necessary measure” after the Philippine ships “violated China’s sovereignty.&quot;</span><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><br/></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The Chinese coast guard has also reinstalled a floating barrier across the entrance to the shoal’s vast fishing lagoon, the Philippine coast guard said. The Philippine coast guard removed a similar barrier in the past to allow Filipinos to fish there.</span><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><br/></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">In addition to the Philippines and China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have also been involved in the territorial disputes.</span><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><br/></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">Chinese coast guard ships had also ventured into waters close to Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia in the past, sparking tensions and protests, but the Southeast Asian nations with considerable economic ties with China have not been as aggressively critical against Beijing&#x27;s increasingly assertive actions.</span><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><br/></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The Philippines has released videos of its territorial faceoffs with China and invited journalists to witness the hostilities in the high seas in a strategy to gain international support, sparking a word war with Beijing.</span><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap"></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><br/></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:#000000;background-color:transparent;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap">The increasing frequency of the skirmishes between the Philippines and China has led to minor collisions, injured Filipino navy personnel and damaged supply boats in recent months. It has sparked fears the territorial disputes could degenerate into an armed conflict between China and the United States, a longtime treaty ally of the Philippines.</span></div><div><br/></div><div><br/></div><div><br/></div><div><br/></div>

<p>A flotilla of about 100 mostly small fishing boats led by Filipino activists sailed Wednesday to a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, where Beijing’s coast guard and suspected militia ships have used powerful water cannons to ward off what they regard as intruders.</p>

A flotilla of about 100 mostly small fishing boats led by Filipino activists sailed Wednesday to a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, where Beijing’s coast guard and suspected militia ships have used powerful water cannons to ward off what they regard as intruders.

Filipino activists and fishermen sail in 100-boat flotilla to disputed shoal guarded by China

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Filipino activists and fishermen sail in 100-boat flotilla to disputed shoal guarded by China

Associated Press,

Jim Gomez

Published May 15, 2024 08:46 AM PHT

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Updated May 15, 2024 12:50 PM PHT

Read More:

atin ito

west philippine sea

south china sea

china

beijing

second thomas shoal

bajo de masinloc

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