Palace verifying report on China’s Panatag plan

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is verifying the accuracy of a report on the supposed plan of China to build a structure at Scarborough Shoal.

“We are seeking information from Chinese authorities to clarify the accuracy of the report,” DFA spokesman Charles Jose said in a text message yesterday.

Jose was referring to a report of Chinese newspaper Hainan Daily, which quoted Sansha Communist Party Secretary Xiao Jie as saying that preparations are underway to build an environmental monitoring station at Scarborough, also known as Panatag Shoal.

The official was also quoted as saying that Chinese stations will also be built on features in the Paracel island group, which is being claimed by Vietnam. Xiao is the mayor of Sansha City, which

Beijing in 2012 established to administer the islands in the disputed territories.

The Chinese foreign ministry has yet to confirm the accuracy of the report.

Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella yesterday indicated that they have not received any official word on the plan, which is expected to renew concerns over Beijing’s robust assertions of its claims in the strategically crucial sea.

“We are seeking information from Chinese authorities to clarify the accuracy of the report,” Abella said.

“I’ll have to check with the defense department,” was the only reply The STAR got from Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla, Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesman, when asked for comment.

In an interview earlier this month, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said China planned in June to conduct reclamation activities at the shoal.

He said it was the United States that stopped the planned reclamation.

Situated inside the Philippine exclusive economic zone, the shoal was the site of a tense standoff between Philippine and Chinese vessels in 2012.

Beijing has seized control of the feature, barring Filipino fishermen from entering its resource-rich waters.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague did not rule on the ownership of the shoal. However, it denied Chinese claims that it is an island capable of generating its own 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone.

Rather, it said the shoal – a traditional fishing ground of Chinese and Filipino fishermen – was an above- water feature that generates entitlement to a 12-nautical mile territorial sea.

The arbitration court, before which the Philippines lodged its dispute during the term of former president Benigno Aquino III, also ruled that China violated the traditional fishing rights of Filipinos when it stopped fishermen from entering the shoal.

China last year allowed Filipino fishermen to access the shoal following a meeting between Chinese and Philippine officials led by President Duterte, who sought friendlier ties with Beijing upon assuming office.

In pursuing an independent foreign policy, Duterte has set

aside the arbitration court’s ruling which gave the Philippines rights over disputed areas of the South China Sea.

Duterte was also recently caught in a dilemma after some lawmakers and experts sought clarification over his admission to allow a research mission at Benham Rise, over which the Philippines has exclusive sovereign rights.

Phl to strengthen military facilities in S. China Sea

The Philippines said on Friday it would strengthen its military facilities on islands and shoals in the disputed South China Sea and announced initial plans to build a new port and pave an existing rough airstrip.

Secretary Lorenzana had been scheduled to inspect an outpost on Thitu, one of the disputed Spratly Islands, but his trip was canceled because of “safety issues” and he spent the day instead at a military base where he unveiled the development plans.

“We will build a runway and a port, a pier, for our ships” on Thitu, Lorenzana told troops at the Western Command’s 41st anniversary. “We are a bit blind in that area.”

Thitu is close to Subi Reef, one of seven manmade islands in the Spratlys that China is accused of militarizing with surface- to- air missiles and other armaments.

The Philippines has squabbled with China for years over the South China Sea, but relations appear to have improved under President Duterte, who met with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang in Davao City in the southern Philippines on Friday.

The secretary said Duterte had given approval to upgrade facilities not only on Thitu but on the eight other features in the South China Sea it occupies.

Defense spokesman Arsenio Andolong said landing on a porous runway on Thitu after heavy rains would have been dangerous.

A senior Philippine general said, however, the military also blocked a planned trip by a group of lawmakers to Thitu on Thursday, more because of concern over how China would react.

“That is a contested area, that is not 100 percent ours,” Lt. Gen. Raul del Rosario told a congressional hearing on Thursday.

“That’s why we are concerned if you fly there. Every time an aircraft flies there, it gets a warning and there are times they fire flares towards the aircraft.”

The military declined to comment on Rosario’s statement.

A fishing community of about 110 people live on Thitu. China has troops on islands it occupies but not civilians.

China claims most of the South China Sea, a strategic waterway through which about $5 trillion of goods passes each year. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims.