MANILA — Rep. Leila de Lima (ML Party-list) rejected repeated claims by the Chinese Embassy in Manila that the Philippines had instigated tensions in the West Philippine Sea, calling the allegation a case of “selective amnesia.”

“Regardless of the distinction between a territorial sea and an EEZ, it does not really matter because China itself is guilty of the most absurd disregard for legal distinctions when it claims the whole of the South China Sea as its territorial waters,” De Lima said.

De Lima said China is roughly 900 to 1,000 kilometers from the Philippines, leaving about a 300-kilometer “buffer zone” between the exclusive economic zones of both countries. However, China continues to claim territorial control over the entire South China Sea, of which the West Philippine Sea is a small part.

Without its nine-dash line claim, she said, China’s claims of “blurred distinctions” in the disputed waters would collapse. In 2016, a tribunal in The Hague ruled that China’s nine-dash line has no legal basis and violates the Philippines’ sovereign rights over areas within its 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone, including reefs, shoals, and islands in the West Philippine Sea.

De Lima’s remarks came after the Chinese Embassy in Manila rejected the National Maritime Council’s statement reaffirming Beijing’s “persistent illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive activities” in the West Philippine Sea.

The embassy claimed that the Philippines had conducted incursions and economic activities in waters China considers its own, specifically at Huangyan Dao and Xianbin Jiao, known in the Philippines as Scarborough (Bajo de Masinloc) and Escoda Shoals (Sabina Shoal).

“It has always been the Philippines that has time and again provoked trouble in an attempt to change the status quo,” the embassy statement read, asserting that China is only defending its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights.

De Lima countered that China has consistently harassed Philippine vessels and blocked Manila from freely exploring resource-rich areas within its exclusive economic zone.

“Of course China conveniently skipped its own history of aggression in the Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal in its litany of so-called provocative actions of the Philippines,” De Lima said. She added that China has seven military outposts in the Spratly Islands, the largest among claimant countries.

“It also failed to mention its own aggressive actions against Philippine fisherfolk and PCG personnel when it purportedly defends an imaginary Chinese coast 1,000 kilometers away from China,” she said.

China plans to designate Scarborough Shoal as a 3,253-hectare national nature reserve, a move the Philippines has protested, arguing that the shoal remains under its sovereignty. Chinese Coast Guard and Navy vessels have increased their presence around the shoal since last year, prompting diplomatic protests from Manila.

“They are not asking us to be their friends. They are asking the Philippines to be their vassal. That is what the intimidation, aggression, and violence in the WPS is all about,” De Lima said, highlighting the broader challenge of responding to a global superpower asserting regional dominance.