AFP refutes China’s ‘indisputable’ sea claim

THE Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Saturday repudiated China’s claim of “indisputable sovereignty” over the Ayungin Shoal, a submerged reef in the Spratly Islands that is located 105 nautical miles west of Palawan.

“The use of the word ‘indisputable’ is itself disputable for the reason that number one, the Unclos (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) says that they don’t have sovereignty over the terrain. It’s very far. So, how can they exercise sovereignty?” AFP spokesman Col. Medel Aguilar said in a weekly forum in Quezon City.