Amid South China Sea militarization, Palace betting on China's promise

MANILA — The Philippine government continues to rely on China's promise that it will not reclaim new artificial islands in the South China Sea, Malacañang said yesterday.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque dismissed a newspaper report that China is nearly complete with its militarization of South China Sea as not anymore "news."

"What do you want us to say? All that we could do is to extract a promise from China not to reclaim any new artificial islands," Roque said at a streamed press briefing.

"Those islands were reclaimed during even the time of the former administration. They were completed, in fact, during the time of the previous administration and I think whether or not we like it, they intended to use them as military bases," Roque also said.

Roque added that the Aquino administration was not able to do anything about Beijing's island building activities in the contested waters.

Contrary to Roque's claim, the Aquino administration took China's island building before the United Nations-backed tribunal based in The Hague, Netherlands. In July 2016, the arbitral tribunal issued a landmark ruling invalidating China's nine-dash line claim over the South China Sea.

The arbitral tribunal also ruled that China violated its commitment under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea when it constructed artificial islands in the Philippines' exclusive economic zone. The Duterte administration, however, has shelved this ruling in its talks with China.

It's war or never? The presidential spokesperson suggested that the Philippines' options only boils down to whether it will go to war with China, echoing the position of the Duterte administration. One of the lawyers behind the arbitration case had called policy defeatist. (Philstar.

com)