Beijing sees Philippines SCS plan scrapped

PHILIPPINE President Rodrigo Duterte ordered troops to scrap plans of building a fishermen’s shelter on a sandbar in the disputed South China Sea after Beijing complained, his defence chief said yesterday.

The military in August brought bamboo and roofing materials to the sandbar near one of their garrisons in the Spratlys archipelago before the president’s intervention, Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said.

“We tried to put some structures [on] one of the sandbars near our island and the Chinese reacted,” Lorenzana said.

“And so the president came to know about this and he said: ‘Let’s pull out’.”

Duterte yesterday sought to downplay the incident, saying China did not make a “strong” reaction and adding “they allowed us to fish” there.

“Do not do anything that will disturb the equilibrium that is now present there,” he said of the decision.

Lorenzana said the sandbar the military had planned to build the shelter on was a 500-squaremetre outcrop located just off Philippine-held Thitu island.

Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano advised Duterte there was an agreement between the two nations not to put up structures on new South China Sea features, Lorenzana said yesterday, explaining the president’s move.

“We did not occupy it but some of our fishermen would like to establish a shelter there. They [China] saw it and they complained, so we had to pull out,” Lorenzana said.