PH mulls leasing foreign ships to expand West Philippine Sea presence

WPS composite image from Inquirer file, AFP and Reuters photo

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is open to leasing ships from other countries to expand its presence in the West Philippine Sea, said the National Maritime Council (NMC) on Thursday.

“Actually parang stop-gap measure–habang wala pa talaga tayong atin, it’s an area, it’s an option na siguro mag-arkila tayo,” said NMC spokesperson Alexander Lopez in a Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon briefing on Thursday.

(Actually, it’s like a stop-gap measure–while we don’t really have our own yet, it’s an area, it’s an option that we might lease.)

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The idea was initially proposed on Wednesday by Senator Francis Tolentino, who suggested that leasing ships could help strengthen the country’s presence in the West Philippine Sea.

But Lopez said the government had already been considering the prospect of leasing ships even before.

“Maganda po ‘yung suggestion ni Sen. Tolentino, in fact pinagiisipan na po ‘yon dati,” he said.

(Sen. Tolentino’s suggestion is good, in fact we already considered that before.)

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The Philippines has been embroiled in a long-standing territorial dispute with China, which claimed ownership of most of the South China Sea—including the West Philippine Sea—through its so-called 10-dash line, despite the area being within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

However, China’s claims were effectively invalidated by a July 2016 international tribunal ruling, stemming from a case filed by Manila in 2013.

Despite the ruling, China has continued to deliberately ignore it, consistently encroaching on the Philippines’ EEZ.