The Philippines Wants Alleged Chinese Fishing Vessels Off The Island
PHILIPPINES – Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said that the Philippine government asked China to recall their alleged vessels present near the island.
Malacañang recently revealed that the Chinese government is looking forward to resolving ‘irritations’ and disputes with Philippines through bilateral talks.
Yesterday, (Tuesday, April 30) in a report from GMA’s 24 Oras with Joseph Morong, Delfin Lorenzana had a talk with the Chinese Ambasador Zhao Jianhua himself.
According to an article from GMA News,
Lorenzana talked with the Chinese Ambassador about the alleged 275 fishing vessels seen by the navy officials near the Pag-asa Island from January to March.
In a text message, Lorenzana said “Of course, we asked them to leave the vicinity of Pag-asa.”
The Chinese ambassador apparently told Lorenzana that the marine vessles in the area are fishing boats. And that there are so many of them because it’s fishin season.
He [The Chinese ambassador] also added that the vessels would decrease by the time the fishing season is over.
Accordin to Lorenzana, ambassador Zhiao also claimed that there were no Chinese militia on guard in the area.
As of now, there were no follow-up reports yet to confirm if the Chinese vessels already left the island.
The Malañang emphasized that the Chinese should’ve asked for permission prior to entering whether or not it is a fishing vessel.
Despite this, the Philippines is still willing to participate in diplomatic talks.
And if China decided not to pull the ships out of the Island, Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo “…that is precisely the work of the bilateral mechanism on negotiations so that we could talk how to deal with it.”
That is all there is to it, at least for now. We’ll post updates as soon as we got them.
