PH losing about 60 hectares to China’s land grabbing

China’s land reclamation in four of the Philippine-claimed atolls and reefs in the West Philippine Sea area of the South China Sea, estimated to have reached more than 60 hectares, may have already changed the physical features of these disputed areas, which one lawmaker warned could indicate that the Philippines was starting to lose its territory to its bigger and more aggressive neighbor.

Magdalo Rep. Francisco Ashley Acedillo said Chinese reclamation and construction in the South China Sea region might have already changed the status quo in the disputed regional waters.

“Definitely, upon the completion of these reclamation activities by China, they would have been physically altered from reefs and shoals to habitable islands. As islands, furthermore, they are now able to host structures for military and other personnel as well as support naval and aircraft operations therein,” said Acedillo, a former military pilot.

This undated photo handout released by the Kayalaan Municipal office on July 13, 2011 shows the island of Kalayaan, which means “Freedom” in the Filipino language, that was created in 1978 mainly to assert the Philippines’ claim to the disputed territory in the Spratlys, a chain of islets in the South China Sea. AFP PHOTO/ Kayalaan Municipal office / HO

Going, going, gone …

He predicted that the Philippines could lose Ayungin Shoal (Second Thomas Shoal) to China “in a year’s time or two … when China steps up air and navy patrols based out of Mischief Reef.”

The Philippines had control of Panganiban Reef (Mischief Reef) until 1995 when China began putting up what it claimed was a shelter for Chinese fishermen, but then ultimately claimed the reef for itself.

Alarmed Philippine authorities moved to guard the neighboring Ayungin Shoal, allowing a disused hospital ship, the BRP Sierra Madre, to run aground on the shoal. Ayungin is about 22 nautical miles (41 kilometers) from Panganiban Reef.

Acedillo warned that “within two to three years” after China takes Ayungin Shoal, Scarborough Shoal, or the Bajo de Masinloc, off the coast of Zambales province would be next.

“Within a decade from next year, we will be forced to relocate residents of Pagasa, which is now part of Palawan province and abandon our second largest island in the Spratly group,” Acedillo said.

Already a small city

Aerial photos of Mischief Reef taken last Jan. 29 and 30 showed that dredging activities have begun in the area.

A well-placed government source described the dredging in Mischief Reef as “the most unsettling” of all because it is only 41 kilometers from Ayungin Shoal.

The Inquirer learned that the Chinese had reclaimed some 24 ha of land on Calderon Reef, the biggest of the artificial islands in the disputed waters. On it, the Chinese have built a massive building surrounded by several smaller structures.

On Mabini Reef, China has reclaimed 12.14 ha of land; on Gaven Reef, some 10.9 ha, and on Kennan Reef, 8.09 ha.

“If you put all those structures together, it would be like a small city,” the source said.

Forward operating bases

Acedillo said these Chinese built-up territories functioned as forward operating island bases that could sustain 24/7 naval and air patrols, “virtually allowing China to stake their claim to at least 80 percent or even the entire South China Sea area consistent with their nine-dash line claim.”

“This will be to the detriment of the other claimants,” he said.

The dispute over territory and sovereignty over the South China Sea region involves for the most part the Spratlys and Paracel island chains, which are claimed in whole or in part by China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan and the Philippines. Apart from these two chains, there are dozens of uninhabited rocky outcrops, atolls, sandbanks and reefs, such as the Scarborough Shoal claimed by the Philippines and China.

China claims by far the largest portion of the South China Sea territory, an area defined by the “nine-dash line” that stretches hundreds of miles south and east from its southernmost Hainan province, its claim based on 2,000 years of regarding the Paracel and Spratly chains as part of China.

The Philippines’ main basis for its claim to the Spratlys (it has no claim to the Paracels) comes from its geographical proximity to some of its claimed territories that, it says, falls within its exclusive economic zone as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos).

The Scarborough Shoal (known as Huangyan Island in China), claimed by the Philippines and China, is little more than 220 kilometers (118 nautical miles) from the Philippines and 650 kilometers (350 nautical miles) from China.

Lack of COC

Acedillo warned that China’s “preeminence over the Spratlys and the South China Sea” as a result of its unhampered building of facilities on the disputed territories that could become operational by year’s end or early next year, it would be very hard to forge a Code of Conduct (COC) on the South China Sea that would be fair to all parties and not skewed in China’s favor.

“China has gained the most from this seeming lull provided by a lack of COC with teeth,” he said.

“The fallout versus China generated by these violations will make it even harder to redraft an enforceable COC that is binding to China, not so much the Association of Southeast Asian Nations,” he said.

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