Whitsun Reef Incident
On March 22, 2021, a diplomatic incident started after the Philippines filed a diplomatic protest against China due to the presence of more than 200 Chinese fishing vessels at Whitsun Reef as early as March 7, 2021. The reef is part of the contested Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. The Chinese presence at Whitsun Reef caused tensions, with the Philippines alleging that the ships are part of a militia and the mooring of the ships at the reef is a prelude to a Chinese takeover of the maritime feature. China denied such allegations, claiming that the ships were seeking shelter at the reef due to rough weather conditions. Both countries claim sovereignty over Whitsun Reef, as does Vietnam which has filed its own protest against Chinese presence in the reef. Over time, the Chinese presence in the Whitsun Reef declined. However, the ships' dispersal to other parts of the Spratly Islands prolonged diplomatic tensions. Background Whitsun Reef is among the maritime features in t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Whitsun Reef
Whitsun Reef, also known as Whitson Reef, Whitsum Reef, and Julian Felipe Reef ( tl, Bahura ng Julian Felipe; Mandarin ; vi, Đá Ba Đầu), is a reef at the northeast extreme limit of the Union Banks in the Spratly Islands of the South China Sea. It is the largest reef of the Union Banks. Topography The reef is V-shaped with an area of about . Until at least the 1990s, it was above the water only during low tide; at other times the reef could be detected by the pattern of breaking waves. At the end of the 20th century, small sand dunes had developed on the reef making a territorial claim possible (an International Court of Justice judgment in 2012 stated that “low-tide elevations cannot be appropriated"). The development of the dunes could have occurred naturally, but it was rumoured that the island was being built up by Vietnam and China. Territorial disputes As of 2016, the reef was unclaimed; reports to the contrary (Chinese control) were based on a confusion. However ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Mischief Reef
Mischief Reef, also known as Panganiban Reef ( tl, Bahura ng Panganiban); vi, Đá Vành Khăn; also known in Mandarin ;, is a low tide elevation (LTE) reef/atoll surrounding a large lagoon in the SE of Dangerous Ground in the east of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. It is located west of Palawan Island of the Philippines. Administratively, it belonged to the Kalayaan Islands municipality of the province of Palawan. Activities by the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the mid-2010s have created a large artificial island on the atoll which has included an approximately runway and associated airfield. Although the reef is well within the Philippines' EEZ and traditional fishing grounds, Mischief Reef has been controlled by the PRC since 1995, and is also claimed by the Republic of China (Taiwan), and Vietnam. The PRC performed various reclamation activities at least two locations on the rim of the atoll in the period from 1995 to 2013, but in the period from the end ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Department Of National Defense (Philippines)
The Department of National Defense (DND; fil, Kagawaran ng Tanggulang Pambansa, ''KTP'') is the executive department of the Philippine government responsible for guarding against external and internal threats to peace and security in the country. The Department of National Defense exercises executive supervision over the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Office of Civil Defense (OCD), the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO), the National Defense College of the Philippines (NDCP), the Government Arsenal (GA), and Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC). It is also responsible for disaster preparation and management in the country. It is headed by the Secretary of National Defense, who is a member of the President's cabinet. The current OIC of the National Defense of the Philippines is Jose Faustino Jr. as of June 30, 2022. History The Department of National Defense or DND was formally organised on November 1, 1939, pursuant to ''Executive Order No. 230'' of P ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Philippine Navy
The Philippine Navy (PN) ( tgl, Hukbong Dagat ng Pilipinas, , Sea Army of the Philippines) ( es, Armada de Filipinas, , Ejército del Mar de las Filipinas) is the naval warfare service branch of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. It has an estimated strength of 24,500 active service personnel, including the 8,300-strong Philippine Marine Corps. It operates 82 combat vessels, 14 auxiliary vessels, 25 manned aircraft and 8 unmanned aerial vehicles. It shares the responsibility of patrolling the maritime borders with the Philippine Coast Guard, a formerly attached unit which became a separate maritime law enforcement agency in 1998. History Pre-colonial period Before the Spaniards arrived in the Philippines the ancient native people were already engaging in naval warfare, raiding, trade, piracy, travel and communication using various vessels including balangay. A flotilla of balangay was discovered in the late 1970s in Butuan City, Agusan del Norte. Native Philippine warshi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Philippine Air Force
The Philippine Air Force (PAF) ( tgl, Hukbong Himpapawid ng Pilipinas, , Army of the Air of the Philippines) ( es, Ejército Aérea del Filipinas, , Ejército de la Aérea de la Filipinas) is the aerial warfare service branch of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Initially formed as part of the Philippine Army (Philippine Army Air Corps), the PAF is responsible for both defending the Philippine airspace, and conducting aerial operations throughout the Philippines, such as close air support operations, combat air patrols, aerial reconnaissance missions, airlift operations, helicopter tactical operations and aerial humanitarian operations. The PAF is headquartered at the Villamor Air Base in Pasay, and is headed by the Chief of the Air Force, who also serves as the branch's highest-ranking military officer. History Philippine Commonwealth and Independence Early years and World War II The forerunners of the Philippine Air Force was the Philippine Militia, otherwise known as ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Western Command (Philippines)
The Western Command (abbrv. as WESCOM) is the Armed Forces of the Philippines' unified command in charge of the islands of Palawan and Kalayaan, including the disputed Spratly Islands group. It is responsible for the defense of these areas against external aggresion, as well as combating terrorism and insurgency. Operations * Anti-guerrilla operations against the New People's Army * Anti-terrorist operations against known terror groups operating in their AOR. * Guarding and patrol operation on Philippine occupied Spratly Islands (Kalayaan Island Group). *Defense and Protection of Palawan and islands in the West Philippine Sea against Chinese Aggression. * Joint Multinational Search and Rescue Operations for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370/MAS370) was an international passenger flight operated by Malaysia Airlines that disappeared on 8 March 2014 while flying from Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia to its planned destination ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Armed Forces Of The Philippines
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) ( fil, Sandatahang Lakas ng Pilipinas) are the military forces of the Philippines. It consists of three main service branches; the Army, the Air Force, and the Navy (including the Marine Corps). The President of the Philippines is the Commander-in-Chief of the AFP and forms military policy with the Department of National Defense, an executive department acting as the principal organ by which military policy is carried out, while the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines serves as the overall commander and the highest-ranking officer in the AFP. Founded under the National Defense Act of 1935, while tracing its roots to the Philippine Revolutionary Army, the AFP has played an integral part in the country's history. The AFP has also been involved in various conflicts, such as combatting rebellion against the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and it's attached organizations, the New People's Army (NPA) and the Nati ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
S2L1C Whitsun Reef 2021 Timelapse
S, or s, is the nineteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ess'' (pronounced ), plural ''esses''. History Origin Northwest Semitic šîn represented a voiceless postalveolar fricative (as in 'ip'). It originated most likely as a pictogram of a tooth () and represented the phoneme via the acrophonic principle. Ancient Greek did not have a phoneme, so the derived Greek letter sigma () came to represent the voiceless alveolar sibilant . While the letter shape Σ continues Phoenician ''šîn'', its name ''sigma'' is taken from the letter ''samekh'', while the shape and position of ''samekh'' but name of ''šîn'' is continued in the '' xi''. Within Greek, the name of ''sigma'' was influenced by its association with the Greek word (earlier ) "to hiss". The original name of the letter "sigma" may have been ''san'', but due to the complica ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Chinese Vessels At Whitsun Reef
Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of various ethnicities in contemporary China ** Han Chinese, the largest ethnic group in the world and the majority ethnic group in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Singapore ** Ethnic minorities in China, people of non-Han Chinese ethnicities in modern China ** Ethnic groups in Chinese history, people of various ethnicities in historical China ** Nationals of the People's Republic of China ** Nationals of the Republic of China ** Overseas Chinese, Chinese people residing outside the territories of Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan * Sinitic languages, the major branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family ** Chinese language, a group of related languages spoken predominantly in China, sharing a written script (Chinese c ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of the Netherlands is Amsterdam, The Hague has been described as the country's de facto capital. The Hague is also the capital of the province of South Holland, and the city hosts both the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The Hague is the core municipality of the Greater The Hague urban area, which comprises the city itself and its suburban municipalities, containing over 800,000 people, making it the third-largest urban area in the Netherlands, again after the urban areas of Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area, with a population of approximately 2.6&n ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
South China Sea Arbitration
''Philippines v. China'' ( PCA case number 2013–19), also known as the South China Sea Arbitration, was an arbitration case brought by the Republic of the Philippines against the People's Republic of China (PRC) under Annex VII of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS, ratified by the Philippines in 1984 and by the PRC in 1996) concerning certain issues in the South China Sea, including the nine-dash line introduced by the Republic of China (Taiwan) since as early as 1947. A tribunal of arbitrators appointed the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) as the registry for the proceedings. On 19 February 2013, China declared that it would not participate in the arbitration. On 7 December 2014, it published a white paper to elaborate its position that, among other points, the tribunal lacks jurisdiction. In accordance with Article 3 of Annex VII of UNCLOS, the Philippines appointed 1 of the 5 arbitrators, while China did not appoint any. On 29 October 2015, th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Rodrigo Duterte
Rodrigo Roa Duterte (, ; born March 28, 1945), also known as Digong, Rody, and by the initials DU30 and PRRD, is a Filipino lawyer and politician who served as the 16th president of the Philippines from 2016 to 2022. He is the chairperson of PDP–Laban, the ruling political party in the Philippines during his presidency. Duterte is the first president of the Philippines to be from Mindanao, and is the oldest person to assume office, beginning his term at age 71. Born in Maasin, Leyte (now in Southern Leyte), Duterte moved to Davao as a child where his father, Vicente Duterte, served as provincial governor. He studied political science at the Lyceum of the Philippines University, graduating in 1968, before obtaining a law degree from San Beda College of Law in 1972. He then worked as a lawyer and was a prosecutor for Davao City, before becoming vice mayor and, subsequently, mayor of the city in the wake of the 1986 People Power Revolution. Duterte won seven terms and s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |