dpa
Manila
China has installed a floating barrier in a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, preventing Filipino fishermen from entering and fishing in the area that is within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, officials said on Sunday.
The floating barrier, estimated at 300 metres long, was discovered by the Philippine Coast Guard and Bureau of Fishers and Aquatic Resources personnel during a routine patrol on Friday at the south-east portion of Scarborough Shoal, locally called Bajo De Masinloc.
“The Philippine Coast Guard and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources strongly condemn the China Coast Guard’s installation of floating barrier in the south-east portion of Bajo de Masinloc,” said Commodore Jay Tarriela, a coast guard spokesman.
The barrier “prevents Filipino fishing boats from entering the shoal and depriving them of their fishing and livelihood activities,” he added.
The barrier also posed a “navigational hazard” because the net underneath can get tangled in propellers of boats passing through the area, Tarriela said.
Scarborough Shoal, also known to the Chinese as Huangyan Dao or Democracy Reef, is 230 kilometres from the Philippines’ north-western coast. It is within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
The shoal was the site of a stand-off between Philippine and Chinese government ships in April 2012, which prompted Manila to file a case against Beijing before an international tribunal that ruled in favour of the Philippines in 2016.
The tribunal ruled that Beijing has no legal or historic basis to its claim to the entire South China Sea. Beijing has rejected the ruling and has taken increasingly aggressive actions in the area in recent years.
