NSC: INTERNATIONAL EXPERTS EXAMINE SCARBOROUGH TO KNOW THE TRUTH

No more giant clamps to harvest in Scarborough Shoal (Photo courtesy of Niño Jesus Orbeta/Inquirer)

It is said that there are no giant clamps left in Scarborough Shoal after all the Chinese fishermen hauled them in and left their shells piled up at the bottom of the sea. The photos taken by the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) under Scarborough is thought to be just a pile of rocks.

But these are dead giant clamps, which were left behind and piled up by Chinese fishermen after harvesting. According to the special report released by the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea, in 2016, Chinese fishermen were still monitored in the Shoal harvesting clamps.

Five years later, they cleared all the giant clamps in Scarborough. After 2019, PCG no longer documented Chinese fishermen harvesting giant clamps because there's no more remaining clamps to harvest.

The Philippines will use its evidence to prove that China has been destroying the natural resources in Scarborough for a long time. The Chinese Embassy has yet to respond to the issue.

But the allegation of their destruction of reefs in the West Philippine Sea is not new, so the National Security Council has challenged China to have international experts examine Scarborough to find out what is true. 

“We can ask third party environmental groups or even the United Nations, to do a fact-finding mission to determine the environmental situation in the Bajo de Masinloc,” Jonathan Malaya Assistant Director General of National Security Council said.

The issue was never publicized during those times, Commodore Jay Tarriela, PCG spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea said that, “This is for the Filipinos to understand that it’s not true that China’s aggressive activities, harmful environmental activities and harassment of Filipino fishermen in the West Philippine Sea only happened during this administration. The objective is to give the right information to the Filipino people.”

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer

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