New potential irritant: PH will increase the accumulation of China in the reef of Zamora

The Philippines will raise China’s ongoing construction work on an artificial island built on a reef in the Western Philippine Sea at the next meeting between Filipino and Chinese officials, the Manila envoy to Beijing said on Saturday.

Ambassador Jose Sta. Romana was reacting to a recent report from Simularity, a US-based research company that analyzes satellite data, that there had been “significant construction activity” on the island that was built by the Chinese in the top of the Zamora reef (Subi).

Zamora is just 26 kilometers southwest of Pag-asa, the largest island occupied by the Philippines that lies within the country’s 370-kilometer exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

Sta. Romana said during Saturday’s Laging Handa briefing that the country had long protested against China’s artificial island that the Chinese built with reclaimed reef land.

He said the Department of Foreign Relations was looking into the matter and would decide based on that.

“There will be discussions, diplomatic discussions, which are being planned to discuss these issues of interest and we hope to bring this up as one of the issues with China,” he said.

Simularity said in a March 24 report that it had monitored “primarily land-related redevelopment and reconfiguration” from November 6, 2020, to March 7.

“The volume of change is significant and may indicate the initial phase of major construction at Subi Reef,” he said.

In 2017, after China had built around seven artificial islands in the disputed waters, then-Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, signed an agreement to maintain the status quo in the Sea. of South China.

Defense Secretary Delfín Lorenzana said the agreement prohibited the construction of new structures and only allowed the improvement of existing facilities.

Instead of a binding code of conduct in the South China Sea, China and the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations signed a “Declaration on the Conduct of the Parties in the South China Sea” in 2002, which called for plaintiffs that the entire strategic waterway to maintain the status quo.

However, China reclaimed land and built artificial islands on the reefs of the Spratlys chain, including some within the Philippine EEZ.

Construction works at Zamora Reef could add a new irritant to maritime relations between two countries after Manila filed a diplomatic protest last week against the presence of around 200 Chinese vessels at Julian Felipe (Whitsun) Reef, also within the country’s EEZ, and demanded its immediate withdrawal.

The Chinese ambassador in Manila, Huang Xilian, met with President Duterte and explained that they were Chinese fishing boats seeking refuge on the reef due to bad weather. About 180 of them were still on the reef as of last Monday.

Sta. Romana said the Philippines should keep an eye out for Chinese ships at Julian Felipe and monitor the area to see if there was any movement after Beijing said the ships were there only temporarily.

But he also said that while the Chinese vessels were cause for concern, there was no reason for the country to panic because they could resolve the matter with “an abundance of diplomacy.”

“Vigilance is the price of sovereignty and that is why vigilance and monitoring are important,” he said.

The Philippine military and the country’s allies believe the ships belong to China’s maritime militia and their presence undermined the country’s sovereign rights in its EEZ.

France also expresses concern

The French ambassador, Michèle Boccoz, was the last diplomat to support the Philippines on this issue on Saturday.

Boccoz included a German flag and a French flag in a Twitter post where he expressed concern about the presence of Chinese militia ships on the Julián Felipe reef, adding to the number of foreign envoys who raised the alarm on Twitter.

Officials and diplomats from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Japan had also expressed concern about the Chinese ships that had invaded the reef.

British Foreign Minister Nigel Adams shared London’s “concerns” about developments in the South China Sea, including “actions that increase tensions there.”

Canadian Ambassador Peter MacArthur said on Twitter Thursday that his country “opposes recent Chinese actions in the South China Sea, including off the coast of the Philippines, which increase tensions and undermine regional stability and the rules-based international order “.

Steven Robinson, the Australian envoy to Manila, said his country “remains[s] concerned about destabilizing actions that could cause an escalation ”in the South China Sea.

Luc Véron, the European Union ambassador to the Philippines, also in a tweet, said that the European Union respects the rules-based order and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos).

Verón’s tweet quoted Josep Borrell Fontelles, EU Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, who said: “We cannot allow countries to unilaterally undermine international law and maritime security in the #SurChinaSea, which represents a serious threat to the peaceful development of the region. “

The Chinese Embassy in Manila had dismissed the concerns of the other countries, saying they were not parties to the South China Sea dispute. He said Beijing’s policy was to resolve its disputes with other countries in bilateral negotiations. —WITH REPORTS FROM NIKKA G. VALENZUELA AND INVESTIGATION OF INQUIRER

Read next

Don’t miss out on the latest news and information.