Lorenzana: China occupied no new feature in West Philippine Sea under Duterte

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Thursday said there have been no additional features in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) occupied by China during the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.

“Mula nung pumasok si Presidente ay wala namang nakuhang bagong teritoryo, kinuhang bagong teritoryo yung China. Hindi na rin sila nag-occupy ng mga vacant, unoccupied features,” Lorenzana said at the Laging Handa public briefing.

(Since the President came in, no new territories have been occupied by China. It did not occupy any vacant, unoccupied features.)

Lorenzana said Duterte was able to talk to the leadership of the Chinese government to maintain peaceful coexistence while sorting out who has the rights in owning the disputed territories.

In April 2021, Simularity Inc. co-founder and CEO Liz Derr cited the sluggish push by the Philippine government to protect its claims over the West Philippine Sea.

She warned that more WPS features will be taken by other countries if this weak approach continues.

“We've seen how much weaker the Philippines is in protecting [its] territory, compared to the other claimants. If this weakness continues, we will surely see more features being occupied by other countries,” she pointed out.

Simularity is an AI software company that analyzes multispectral and SAR satellite imagery and serves federal governments, GIS consulting companies, and international defense and intelligence agencies.

According to Derr, Vietnam has protected its sovereign rights over its own EEZ by building 29 outposts in Spratly Islands (not all within Philippine EEZ).

But the Philippines has built only 11 outposts in the Spratly Islands to protect its sovereign rights over its own EEZ. —NB, GMA News