Business groups join calls for China to withdraw vessels from Julian Felipe Reef

The business sector has joined calls urging China to withdraw its vessels from Julian Felipe Reef in the West Philippine Sea.

In a joint statement, business groups said they “support Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, other government officials, and many groups in calling on China to withdraw their vessels from Julian Felipe Reef.”

The Department of Foreign Affairs has summoned China’s Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian to protest the lingering present of Chinese vessels in the Philippine reef. 

The Philippines insists that the Julian Felipe Reef is within the its exclusive economic zone under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea or UNCLOS.

Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. also said he will lodge a diplomatic protest against China every day until all their ships leave the reef.

Despite repeated calls and protests from the Philippines, Chinese ships continue to linger in the area and have even been spotted in other parts of the Kalayaan Island Group in the municipality of Kalayaan, Palawan off the country’s northwestern waters.

“Julian Felipe Reef is historically and by law undisputed Philippine territory, as was mostly clearly established in the 2016 ruling bases on the UN Convention on the Law of the Seas. Our exclusive right over the Julian Felipe Reef carries with it the utilization of, and the obligation to protect, its economic benefits, such as its rich marine life and mineral deposits, for the well-being of each and every Filipino,” the business groups said.

“We call on the Chinese authorities to respect the sovereignty of the Philippines and other neighboring countries for it is only through peaceful co-existence that we can achieve prosperity for all,” the groups said.

Signatories in the joint statement are the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Management Association of the Philippines, Makati Business Club, Filipina CEO Circle, Bishops-Businessmen’s Conference for Human Development, Judicial Reform Initiative, Cebu Business Club, and Iloilo Business Club. — BM, GMA News