The Philippines on Sunday condemned the Chinese coast guard for installing what it called a \u201cfloating barrier\u201d in a disputed area of the South China Sea, saying that it prevented Filipino boats from entering and fishing in the area. <\/p>\n
In a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, Philippine coast guard spokesperson Jay Tarriela said the floating barrier was discovered by Philippine vessels during a routine maritime patrol on Friday and measured around 300 meters (984 feet). <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Philippine coast guard and Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources strongly condemn the China coast guard\u2019s installation of a floating barrier in the Southeast portion of Bajo de Masinloc, which prevents Filipino fishing boats from entering the shoal and depriving them of their fishing and livelihood activities,\u201d the statement read. <\/p>\n
Tarriela shared photos of the alleged floating barrier and claimed three Chinese coast guard boats and a Chinese maritime militia service boat had installed the floating barrier following the arrival of a Philippine government vessel in the area. <\/p>\n
The Philippine coast guard shared footage earlier this week of vast patches of broken and bleached coral, prompting officials to accuse China of massive destruction in the area. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe continued swarming for the indiscriminate illegal and destructive fishing activities of the Chinese maritime militia in Rozul Reef and Escoda Shoal may have directly caused the degradation and destruction of the marine environment in the [West Philippine Sea] features,\u201d Tarriela said in a statement, referring to Manila\u2019s name for parts of the South China Sea within its jurisdiction. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe presence of crushed corals strongly suggests a potential act of dumping, possibly involving the same dead corals that were previously processed and cleaned before being returned to the seabed,\u201d Tarriela added. <\/p>\n
When asked about the coral destruction at a routine briefing on Thursday, China\u2019s foreign ministry dismissed the allegations as \u201cfalse and groundless.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWe advise the Philippine authorities not to utilize fabricated information to stage a political farce,\u201d spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters. <\/p>\n
According to Filipino fishermen, Chinese vessels \u201cusually install floating barriers whenever they monitor a large number of Filipino fishermen in the area,\u201d the statement said. <\/p>\n
China has not yet publicly commented. <\/p>\n
Bajo de Masinloc, also known as the Scarborough Shoal, is a small but strategic reef and fertile fishing ground 130 miles (200 kilometers) west of the Philippine island of Luzon. <\/p>\n
The shoal, which China calls Huangyandao, is one of a number of disputed islands and reefs in the South China Sea, which is home to various territorial disputes. <\/p>\n\n
The Philippines on Sunday condemned the Chinese coast guard for installing what it called a \u201cfloating barrier\u201d in a disputed area of the South China Sea, saying that it prevented Filipino boats from entering and fishing in the area. In a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, Philippine coast guard spokesperson Jay Tarriela said <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9099,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9098","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}