Philippine defense chief visits disputed Spratly island

Agence France-Presse

Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana flew to a disputed South China Sea island on April 21, 2017, brushing off a challenge by the Chinese military while asserting Manila’s territorial claim to the strategic region.

“This is just a normal visit within our territory, which we believe and we know is [our] territory,” the minister told reporters who accompanied him on the brief trip.

China claims most of the South China Sea, including what it calls Thitu Island. Lorenzana, pictured at center, visited the island, which the Philippines calls Pag-asa Island.

In recent years, Beijing has been building up disputed reefs into artificial islands, including on Subi Reef about 26 kilometers from Thitu, which can house military facilities.

Lorenzana said construction would start soon on a quay, which is a platform to hold construction materials, so repairs can be made to an existing airstrip on Thitu in the Spratly archipelago. Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam also claim the Spratlys, either wholly or in part.

As the military transport plane bearing Lorenzana and local officials of Palawan Island, the largest land mass close to the Spratlys, prepared to land, the minister said the pilots received a warning from Chinese forces on Subi.

The pilots were warned the aircraft was illegally entering Chinese territory, a routine for all Philippine aircraft landing on the Thitu airstrip since China reclaimed Subi, he said, adding that his pilots disregarded the warning.

“That’s their protocol. That’s procedural. We also reply that we are flying over Philippine territory,” he said.

Lorenzana visited Thitu more than a week after Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte pulled back from an announcement to visit the island on June 12 and raise the Philippine flag there. Duterte said later he had called off the trip “because we value our friendship” with Beijing.

Reversing the course set by predecessor Benigno Aquino III, Duterte has sought to improve his nation’s relations with Beijing by adopting a nonconfrontational approach over their competing claims in the strategically vital waters believed to sit atop huge oil and gas reserves.

Duterte is not backing down from his orders for the military to reinforce its installations in the Spratlys, however, and has allotted 1.6 billion pesos (U.S. $32.16 million) for these, Lorenzana said. China and Vietnam have long been fortifying their own garrisons on nearby outcrops, he said.

“We all know that China is the most powerful country in our neighborhood. They are economically powerful, also militarily,” said Lorenzana. “We are trying to manage the issue and talk to them … settle this dispute in the South China Sea.”

As Lorenzana flew to Thitu, the Philippine Coast Guard announced that a group of Filipino fishermen has accused China’s coast guard of shooting at their vessel in another section of the Spratlys.

Philippine officials said they were investigating the reported attack on the Princess Johann boat, which the crew said occurred near the Chinese side of the Union Banks atoll on March 27, 2017.

There were no casualties during the incident, authorities added.

Princess Johann “was reportedly fired upon seven times by a Chinese speedboat with seven Chinese coast guards on board,” a Philippine Coast Guard statement said.

Chinese foreign ministry representative Lu Kang told reporters at a regular briefing that Beijing had “no information” on the matter.