MANILA, Philippines–President Aquino will raise China’s land reclamation in the South China Sea with other leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) when they meet in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, next week.
“Definitely, the reclamation issue will be the main topic that the President will raise,” Foreign Assistant Secretary Luis Cruz said in a press briefing in Malacañang on Monday.
Cruz said the issues Aquino would raise against China’s massive land reclamation activities would be “more than what he raised during the last summit.”
Cruz reiterated the President’s statement that the South China Sea issue should concern the international community and not just Southeast Asia.
The Philippines on Monday again voiced alarm about China’s “aggressiveness” in the disputed waters.
Reclamation photos
Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr. released what he called satellite photos of China’s rapid reclamation of land at seven reefs and islets in the Spratly archipelago in the middle of the South China Sea.
The pictures showed land reclamation at Mischief, Mabini, Chigua, Calderon, Kagitingan, Zamora and Gaven reefs—all within the Kalayaan Island Group.
STOP RECLAMATION Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr., AFP chief of staff, calls on China to stop the massive reclamation activities at the disputed islets and reefs in the West Philippine Sea. BULLIT MARQUEZ/AP
“We are really amazed at the pace that China is reclaiming [land in] the area—it’s fast but I hope it’s not furious. We feel ourselves in a very difficult situation,” Catapang told reporters at the opening ceremony for this year’s joint exercises between American and Filipino troops at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.
Catapang said the Chinese occupation of Mischief Reef “threatens our defenses and all the other islands.”
“If they reclaim Mischief Reef, we will be cut off,” he said.
“We have a series of islands going down south, going up north, and it will challenge the Ayungin Shoal, which we are claiming, and we have soldiers there,” he added.
What’s China’s intention?
Catapang also cited China’s reclamation activities at Subi Reef, located 74 kilometers from the Philippine-occupied Pagasa Island.
“They are reclaiming Subi Reef just across Pagasa. They are reclaiming Mischief Reef just across Ayungin Shoal and it might create friction. So I think we have to really know the intention of China. What’s the purpose of this reclamation?” he said.
Catapang said the military was ready to defend the islands controlled by the Philippines, although it supported the government’s effort at UN arbitration to resolve the territorial dispute with China.
Besides the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan also claim parts of the Spratlys, where reefs, atolls and islets are believed to be sitting atop vast oil and gas reserves.
The area is also crisscrossed by sea-lanes where a third of global commerce pass every year.
China claims 80 percent of the South China Sea, including waters within the 370-km exclusive economic zones of its smaller neighbors.
Collective statement
Cruz said the Philippines would always aim for a collective statement from Asean, although the summit is not a “negotiation among the leaders.”
“They will be there to express their views, not only on the South China Sea, but what they think are the security issues in the region and internationally,” Cruz said.
President Aquino has consistently raised the Philippines’ concerns over China’s violations of the 2002 Declaration of Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea at Asean summits.
The declaration is an agreement between China and the Asean members to keep the status quo until the maritime disputes are settled.
At an Asean summit in 2012, Aquino disputed the claim of then Asean summit host Cambodia that the regional bloc had agreed not to discuss the South China Sea disputes at international forums.
Aquino said there was no such agreement and that as a sovereign state, the Philippines could seek ways other than the Asean route to defend its national interests.
The President has also said that China’s land reclamation activities have made it “imperative” to push for a binding code of conduct among the claimant states.
While both the Asean, as a regional group, and China have been seen as dragging their feet on the proposed code of conduct, discussions on the document are going on.
“At this point, I think the level of discussion of that joint working group is to identify the elements that can easily be achieved or agreed upon, or what they call the ‘low-hanging fruits.’ An example would be the… activities on search-and-rescue operation,” Cruz said.
President Aquino will be in Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi on April 27 and 28 to attend six meetings, including the 26th Asean Summit Retreat and the 11th Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asean Growth Areas (BIMP-EAGA) Summit.
Asean community
Cruz said the Asean as an integrated community would also be launched at the summit next week.
“Let me make it clear at this point that (Asean Integration 2015) is not the end-all and be-all of Asean community building exercise. Let us refer to it as a milestone or a reference point,” Cruz said.
He said an Asean high-level task force was already drafting the post-2015 plan for the Asean community.
“For the next 10 years, this high-level task force is already identifying the next set of plans essentially to deepen integration of Asean,” Cruz said.
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