🎬 China’s Playbook: From Mischief Reef to Bajo de Masinloc
📍 Episode 3: The Standoff: Scarborough 2012
What began as a routine fisheries law enforcement mission became a two-month maritime tug-of-war—and ended with the Philippines losing control of Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough Shoal) without a single shot being fired. A mutual withdrawal was agreed upon—but only the Philippines pulled back. The other side stayed.
#BRPSierraMadre #WestPhilippineSea #WPS #MaritimeSecurity #InternationalLaw #UNCLOS #RulesBasedOrder #EvidenceSpeaks #SovereigntyDefended #FactsFirst #MaritimeTruth
Four posts in three minutes (6:15-6:17) — all aimed at one lowly Coast Guard officer. A government confident in its legal position does not flood social media to answer a single spokesperson.
The Embassy wants credit for “free speech both ways.” So let me ask honestly: name one foreign mission in Beijing that could do what you just did. Could any embassy there fire off four public posts in an afternoon attacking Chinese officials by name? Of course not.
Facebook is banned. X is banned. The only space left is Weibo — state-controlled, where foreign embassies’ posts are throttled and deleted within minutes.
Still clutching at straws. If only you had the same gumption to partake in the arbitral proceedings and vigorously defend your legal position?
But you chose to sit out, discredit the panel and the award - only because you know well you're standing on flimsy legal grounds.
Oman seems to find Iran's proposal to extract service fees an attractive proposition.
Service fees, or whatever creative label you may conjure, are just toll in disguise. 🤷🏽♂️
The tendency of this embassy is to deliberately obfuscate matters.
The issue I believe Jay wished to highlight isn't the mode of diplomacy you used, but taking issue with your false narratives in defense of a legally indefensible claim. You're just clutching straws.
PCG Issues Radio Challenge to Encroaching China Coast Guard Ship off Zambales–Ilocos | The bully blinked first. A China Coast Guard ship tried to creep closer to the coasts of Zambales, Pangasinan, and Ilocos — but the Philippine Coast Guard called it out on the radio and reminded it of a simple truth: China has no legal authority to patrol inside our Exclusive Economic Zone. BRP Malabrigo warned CCG 5304 to “cease and desist” from illegal patrols near Bajo de Masinloc, showing the world that even when a superpower pushes in, the Philippines will still stand on UNCLOS, the 2016 Arbitral Award, and the courage of its own Coast Guard.
#BRPSierraMadre #DefendTheTruth #WestPhilippineSea #WPS #PhilippineSovereignty #NotOneMore
Your “historical facts” have since been discredited in the arbitral proceedings that you adamantly refused to partake (because despite your rhetoric, you know your claims are legally indefensible), but yet was constituted under UNCLOS to which ironically you are a State Party. 🤷🏻♂️
"Huangyan Dao is Chinese territory, and China has continuously, peacefully, and effectively exercised sovereignty and jurisdiction over it."
No, you did not. Facts matter.
China’s latest move to send Coast Guard vessel 5304 loitering just 27–45 nautical miles off Luzon is a brazen insult to the 2016 Arbitral Award and a slap in the face of every Filipino whose waters Beijing still treats as its own backyard.
By silently tracing an illegal nine‑ and ten‑dash line inside the Philippine EEZ and ignoring repeated, lawful radio challenges from BRP MALABRIGO, China is not “maintaining peace” — it is openly mocking international law and daring Manila to look away.
In contrast, under Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan, the Philippine Coast Guard is acting with professionalism, protecting Filipino fisherfolk, and exposing to the world every quiet act of aggression that China hopes will go unanswered.
If Beijing wants respect as a great power, it can start by respecting the ruling it lost in The Hague — and stop behaving like the Philippine EEZ is its private swimming pool.
#BRPSierraMadre #DefendTheTruth #WestPhilippineSea #WPS #PhilippineSovereignty #NotOneMore
Radar tracking of #China’s research vessel Xiang Yang Hong 22 shows a deliberate intrusion into our waters & ongoing maritime bullying. #Taiwan Coast Guard radioed: “THIS IS NOT YOUR WATERS. YOU DON’T BELONG HERE.”
“No work will be too difficult, no land too far away, no person too wounded for the love of the Heart of Jesus and for all those invited to be bearers of Christ’s love in the world” (St. Frances Xavier Cabrini) #PastoralVisit#SantAngeloLodigiano