Gov’t says no protest as Chinese ship leaves
- Written by Mario J. Mallari
- Monday, 16 July 2012
A Chinese Navy frigate stranded clearly within Philippine territory for the past few days upped and went yesterday with nary a whimper from the government as the Aquino administration even assured China that it would not lodge a diplomatic protest and Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario describing the incident as a likely “accident.”
China extricated the frigate from the disputed Half Moon Shoal where it had been stranded for four days.
Last week’s stranding of the ship, which the country calls Hasa Hasa, was likely an accident, Del Rosario said.
“We don’t believe that there were ill-intentions that accompanied the presence of that ship in our EEZ (exclusive economic zone),” Del Rosario said. “As far as filing a diplomatic protest is concerned, my stance is that we will probably not do that,” he said.
The ship was reportedly on “routine patrol” when it was stranded Wednesday on the shoal, which sits just 60 nautical miles from Palawan and within the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
International law defines a country’s EEZ as being up to 200-nautical-miles from its shores..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribune.net.ph/index.php/headlines/item/1613-gov%E2%80%99t-says-no-protest-as-chinese-ship-leaves
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