MARIA, 28, lives in Masinloc, a seaside town in Zambales that has depended on fishing as one of its most importation livelihoods for generations. She, her four children and her mother are praying before a crucifix for the safety of her husband Roberto.
Roberto, with three of his neighbors, decided to go fishing near Scarborough Shoal and defy the China Coast Guard (CCG) vessels that are blocking access to the rich Filipino fishing grounds there.
China has claimed nearly the entire South China Sea, of which the West Philippine Sea is part, as part of its territory. This includes Scarborough Shoal, historically called Bajo de Masinloc and also referred to as Panatag Shoal. In fact, the country has taken control of parts of Philippine territory, in what some observers have called an invasion or annexation.
Roberto, and as many as 1,500 Filipino fishermen like him, have lost their livelihoods and incurred a 60-percent loss in their catch since the Chinese blockade began. This blockade has had an indirect impact on as many as 13,000 people in 11 municipalities along Zambales’ coast.
The CCG maintains a 24/7 presence there to enforce Beijing’s outrageous and illegal claim. Roberto was previously prevented from fishing when his boat was caught in a water jet from a powerful Chinese water cannon aimed at a Philippine Coast Guard ship that was patrolling nearby.
In late 2025, China declared the entire Scarborough Shoal as part of its exclusive economic zone and a “nature reserve,” using environmental conservation as a reason to justify its blocking tactics and assert its claim.
That claim has been declared as having no legal basis on July 12, 2016, by an arbitral tribunal constituted under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and hosted by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, the Netherlands.
But China continues to allow its fishing fleets to plunder the fishing grounds there and has built several military bases on other shoals, complete with runways and military hardware, missiles and radar sites in Philippine territorial waters. It can be called the forced occupation of Philippine territory.
Bishop Bartolome Santos Jr. of Iba, Zambales, has been outspoken in supporting fishermen like Roberto. In a joint pastoral exhortation in early 2024, Santos condemned the Chinese “bullying” and “forcible occupation” of Philippine waters. The Church must be “proactive” and “stand with its people,” he said.
In another joint pastoral exhortation in late 2024, titled “Children, Have You Caught Anything to Eat?,” six bishops from dioceses directly affected by the sea dispute, including those in Zambales, Palawan and La Union, criticized the government’s previous “policy of appeasing” China and declared that “words are not enough” to address the plundering and destruction of Philippine marine resources.
The bishops also said that if diplomacy failed, it was “permissible — morally necessary even” to seek the help of international allies to defend Philippine territory. That could only mean the United States of America. (To be continued)/PN
