West Philippine Sea task force eyes environmental case vs China

MANILA, Philippines — It is high time that a case is filed against China for its marine environment depredation in Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal, National Security Council assistant director Jonathan Malaya said yesterday.

Concerned government agencies are gathering evidence to support a possible environment case against China, according to Malaya, who is also the spokesman for the National Task Force on the West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS).

“If you were to ask us, given the evidence gathered since 2016 until now, it’s high time that we file another case,” he said at a briefing.

He also cited a “strong consensus” among different concerned agencies for the filing of a case.

It was in 2016 that the Permanent Court of Arbitration based in The Hague ruled favorably on a case filed by the Aquino administration three years earlier questioning China’s massive claim in the South China Sea.

Commodore Jay Tarriela, NTF-WPS spokesman for the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), presented to the media proof of China’s “harmful fishing activities” that he emphasized should be exposed to the public.

He showed photos and videos taken by the PCG documenting Chinese fishermen or militia members harvesting giant clams, stingrays, puffer fish, local seashells called “samong” and “leswe” and turtles in the vicinity of Panatag Shoal from 2016 to 2022.

Chinese coast guard and militia vessels have long been restricting the activities of Filipino fishermen around the shoal.

The “last documented harvesting of giant clams” in Panatag Shoal was in March 2019, according to Tarriela.

He also accused China of using equipment to scrape giant clams off the seabed starting April 2019. The procedure, Tarriela maintained, destroyed coral reefs. “They were so desperate that they even scoured the seabed just to harvest giant clams.”

The Chinese fishermen would abandon the shells of harvested giant clams, or even sink their dilapidated boats, a practice that also ruined the coral reefs.

The 2016 arbitral ruling, according to Malaya, had also slammed China for its “severe harm to the coral reef environment” and for violating its “obligation to preserve and protect fragile ecosystems and the habitat of depleted,