A global advocacy group has urged the Philippine government to pursue efforts to file charges against China for its destruction of marine resources and ecosystem in the West Philippine Sea.

Dr. Celia Lamkin, founder and global chairperson of the National Youth Movement for the West Philippine Sea (NYMWPS) in a Messenger chat said, they have been alarmed that over the years, the continued destruction of the ocean environment by the illegal presence and activities of China in the region, has never been challenged in an international court of law.

“Tama po dahil patuloy ang China sa pagwasak ng ating marine resources at affected ang kabuhayan at food security ng mga mangingisda at ng bansa,” Lamkin emphasized.

She added that fishes and other marine organisms use corals for their shelter, food and reproduction.

“Destroying our corals would mean destroying our ecosystem. Corals would take even ten thousand years before they will be completely formed.”

The latest incident of which was reported by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), February 17.

BFAR said Filipino fishermen told them that Chinese fishermen intentionally use cyanide purportedly to prevent them from fishing.

President Ferdinand Marcos immediately ordered an investigation and promised to sue China if there is solid evidence.

Cyanide kills polyps and algae that provide food for corals which are considered ocean rainforests. Once corals are killed, these ocean rainforests turn into marine deserts.

The non-government organization (NGO) expressed support for calls to hold China accountable and pay damages for its environmental destruction in Philippine territory and Exclusive Economic Zone.

On March 6, former Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio bared that the Department of Justice has been “preparing to file charges against, and seek damages from China over its destruction of the marine environment in the West Philippine Sea.”

Reports said that Carpio’s pronouncements confirm earlier accounts that the DoJ was focusing on China’s extensive damages in Rozul Reef (Iroquois) and Escoda Shoal (Sabina).

The reported severe damages were discovered by divers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Western Command earlier in September 2023 and validated by the Philippine Coast Guard in their underwater investigation.

Carpio and former Supreme Court Justice Francis Jardeleza have earlier called for the filing of environmental damages against China.

On October 16, 2023 during a forum at the Silliman University, Jardeleza pointed out that a Philippine case against China can focus on “environmental damage caused by the Chinese government’s land reclamation activities in the area, including its construction of artificial islands.”

In 2018, Carpio urged the Philippine government to “demand compensation for the destruction of coral reefs in Panatag Shoal, especially since the National Security Council had confirmed that Chinese fishermen were the culprits.”

In its statement, the NYMWPS deplored the massive amounts of human excrement and raw sewage dumped into the West Philippine Sea by loitering PRC (People’s Republic of China) militia vessels in July 2021 – destroying the marine habitat and creating a dead zone incapable of marine reproduction.

“The amount of human waste having been so extensive, it was visible from satellite images as reported by the American-based tech firm, Simularity,” NYMWPS added.

In April 2021, Advocates of Science and Technology for the People (AGHAM), an organization of Filipino scientists, estimated that the Philippines has been losing around P1.3 trillion as a result of coral reef destruction due to “China’s intrusion and construction in the West Philippine Sea.”

In the same Inquirer report, a 2017 evaluation by John McManus revealed that some 160 square kilometers of coral reefs had been ruined, “including 17 square kilometers wiped out entirely by the construction of artificial islands by China. At least,143 square kilometers of coral reefs had been destroyed.
The NYMWPS statement also cited a news report on July 4, 2019 in which scientist Deo Florence Onda of the University of the Philippines’ Marine Science Institute, stated that the PRC’s illegal fishing, poaching and reclamation activities have resulted in a conservative estimate of P33.1 billion in damages annually across 550 hectares in Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal.

The NYMWPS condemned the “massive environmental devastation and widespread coral harvesting, illegal fishing and land reclamation operations caused by PRC in the WPS.

They strongly support the call urging the Philippine government to file a new arbitration case against the PRC on said damages before an international arbitration constituted under UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea).

Lamkin dared China, if it is a really good country, to “stop your inhumane actions that destroy the environment and eventually adversely affect human lives in the Philippines and the world.”

📹/📷: National Youth Movement for the West Philippine Sea (NYMWPS)