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With the increasing Chinese presence at Escoda (Sabina) Shoal blocking supply missions to Filipino troops stationed in the West Philippine Sea, the Philippine government should now accept the offer of the United States to escort its ships in the disputed waters, former Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said on Tuesday.
“We should have regular joint patrols with the US and accept the US offer to escort our resupply ships,” Carpio told the Inquirer in a Viber message on Tuesday.
His statement came days after the pullout of the BRP Teresa Magbanua, one of the Philippine Coast Guard’s (PCG) biggest and most modern ships, from Escoda after a five-month deployment.
The 97-meter Teresa Magbanua was called to port and left the shoal on Sept. 14 for repairs and due to limited supplies and the health condition of its crew, who were forced to subsist on “lugaw” (rice porridge) for three weeks and on water dripping from the ship’s air conditioning unit.
Recent resupply missions to Escoda were unsuccessful due to the blockade of Chinese ships swarming the resource-rich shoal.
In his recent visit to Manila, US Indo-Pacific Command chief Adm. Samuel Paparo Jr. said US ships providing escort to Philippine vessels on resupply missions in the West Philippine Sea was “an entirely reasonable option within our Mutual Defense Treaty.”
But Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. earlier said the military was “very much capable” of doing the resupply missions “safely and successfully” despite repeated Chinese blockade of Filipino ships.
For Carpio, who was part of Manila’s legal team that won the 2016 landmark arbitral ruling on the West Philippine Sea, the Philippines should maintain its physical presence at Escoda.
