China likely to build more islands – Philippines

MANILA: Manila expects China to try to build on a reef off the Philippines’ coast, the country’s defence secretary said Tuesday, a move he said would be “unacceptable” in the flashpoint waterway.

In an interview with AFP, Delfin Lorenzana said he believed China would eventually reclaim the Scarborough Shoal, which sits just 230 kilometres (143 miles) from the main Philippine island of Luzon.

Beijing has already built up a number of islets and reefs in the South China Sea, installing military facilities on several of them.

Analysts say that similar installations on Scarborough Shoal could give China effective military control over the disputed waterway – something the US has said it is not prepared to accept.

“They encroached,” Lorenzana said of a 2012 confrontation that saw Philippine vessels displaced. “They occupied three islands there plus they are trying to get Scarborough. So to us that is unacceptable”.

“If we allow them, they will build. That’s very, very disturbing. Very much (more) disturbing than Fiery Cross because this is so close to us,” Lorenzana added, referring to one of the Philippineclaimed reefs China has built on.

B ecause of its position, another military outpost at Scarborough Shoal is seen as the last major physical step required to secure control of the sea. — AFP