EDITORIAL — Maritime squatter

It was described as a collision. But the West Philippine Sea is a vast expanse, and in fine weather, there is no reason for vessels in the area to be bumping into each other accidentally.

China, whose greedy claim over nearly the entire South China Sea has been invalidated by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, keeps trying to prevent the Philippines from carrying out resupply missions to soldiers stationed in the transport ship BRP Sierra Madre, which is grounded on Ayungin or Second Thomas Shoal. The Philippines cannot let its troops, who are guarding the country’s maritime sovereign rights, starve to death or run out of needed supplies on the Sierra Madre.

Yesterday morning, China coast guard vessels again blocked a Philippine resupply mission to Ayungin. One of its ships and a Philippine vessel collided. Ayungin is within the Philippines’ 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone as defined under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Based on UNCLOS, to which both the Philippines and China are signatories, the arbitration court had declared that the Philippines has sovereign rights over Ayungin as well as Panganiban or Mischief Reef and Recto Bank. China should be asking the Philippines for permission to be in that area.

The arbitration court, in the same ruling that defined the Philippines’ maritime economic entitlements, also invalidated China’s entire nine-dash-line claim in the South China Sea, and declared that Beijing is violating Philippine rights by keeping out Filipino fishermen from Panatag or Scarborough Shoal.

Beijing has tried to bolster its baseless maritime claims by taking over reefs including Panganiban in the South China Sea and turning these into military-fortified artificial islands, destroying the natural marine environment and posing a threat to freedom of navigation. It deploys hundreds of militia vessels and coast guard ships, which are under its military command, to operate in swarms and try to keep Philippine fishing and patrol vessels out of the West Philippine Sea.

Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro has described China as a “squatter” in the West Philippine Sea. The government should do more to put an