Lorenzana: No ongoing construction in Pag-asa, but PHL to build beaching ramp next year

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Wednesday said the Philippines will start the development of Pag-asa Island in the South China Sea in 2018.

Speaking to reporters at a forum in Makati City, Lorenzana said the Philippines will first construct a beaching area or port when the weather improves sometime January to May.

“The beaching ramp I am expecting them to build sometime this year wasn’t there yet. So, when the waters become calmer, around January up to May, then we may be able to continue that. So now nothing is happening there,” he said.

Filipino forces occupy 10 islands and reefs in the disputed Spratly islands off the South China Sea - the biggest being Pag-asa Island or also known by its international name as Thitu Island, where troops and civilian villagers have lived for many years.

The inhabitants reside in low-slung houses often battered by storms during the rainy season.

Manila’s planned repairs and construction on the island, Lorenzana said, did not push through due to bad weather and some changes in the contract entered into by the government with a contractor.

“I thought that it was already being built what happened really was that it did not push through. First, the weather was bad. This time of the year, the sea there is very choppy. The small boats themselves couldn’t even sail there, so we cannot go there,” Lorenzana said.

“Now that we have a new contract, the cost is bigger,” he added. “So, we had to renegotiate the contract with the contractor and it has just been approved and the money was just made available recently.”

China has called “illegal” the Philippines’ planned repairs and maintenance work in Filipino-claimed areas within the country’s exclusive economic zone, insisting these are part of Chinese territory.

Manila maintained that Pag-asa Island and the larger Kalayaan Island Group are a municipality of Palawan, stating “any visit or activity we undertake there are part and parcel of our Constitutional mandate to ensure the safety, well-being, and livelihood of our citizens living in this municipality.”

China and five other governments - Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan - have been locked in long-simmering territorial rifts in the South China Sea that analysts feared as Asia’s next potential flashpoint for a major armed conflict.

Beijing maintains historic rights over nearly the entire waters, which is dotted by clusters of islands, cays, shoals and reefs with rich fishing areas and natural oil and gas despite an international tribunal ruling in The Hague, Netherlands that invalidated its claim last year. 

The Permanent Court of Arbitration delivered a sweeping victory to the Philippines on the case it filed against China in 2013 and declared as illegal China's claim over nearly the entire South China Sea.

It also ruled that Beijing violated the rights of Filipinos, who were blocked by Chinese Coast Guard from fishing in the disputed Scarborough Shoal off northwestern Philippines. China has refused recognize the ruling.

Chinese has built artificial islands in the South China Sea – a move protested by Manila, saying it is a violation of the 2002 non-binding code of conduct in waters between China and the Association of South East Asian Nations.

Reclamations were first detected in 2014 and consisted of massively dredging and sucking sand under the water and transporting them by a maze of long winding pipes onto previously submerged reefs and shoals.

The previously submerged features have now been transformed into islands with buildings several stories high, runways and surface-to-air missiles, sparking speculations they could be used as military forward bases by China’s air and naval forces.

China has said the massive new artificial islands would have military functions, but will also serve to support Chinese fishermen and can be a platform for search and rescue.  — RSJ, GMA News