Beijing assures Manila no new occupation of land in S China Sea

MANILA — China has assured the Philippines that it will not occupy new features or territory in the South China Sea, under a new status quo brokered by Manila as both sides try to strengthen their relations, the Philippine Defence Minister said.

Mr Delfin Lorenzana told a congressional hearing that Manila and Beijing had reached a “modus vivendi” in the South China Sea that prohibits new occupation of islands.

“There is a status quo now that is happening in the South China Sea brokered by the Secretary of Foreign Affairs (Alan Peter Cayetano),” Mr Lorenzana told lawmakers late on Monday.

“According to him, the Chinese will not occupy new features in the South China Sea, nor they are going to build structures in Scarborough Shoal,” he said, referring to a prime fishing ground close to the Philippines which Beijing blocked from 2012 to last year.

“It would be a very serious thing if China will occupy any of the islands,” Mr Lorenzana added.

He did not comment when lawmakers, citing reports from the military, told him five Chinese ships had showed up almost 5km off the Philippine-held Thitu Island in the Spratly archipelago on Saturday.

Thitu Island is the largest of nine reefs and shoals which the Philippines occupies in the Spratlys.

Congressman Gary Alejano said that Chinese fishing boats had blocked a Philippine marine surveillance ship in the area two days ago, and urged the government to lodge a diplomatic protest and tell China to leave Philippine territory in the Spratlys.

The military’s public affairs chief, Colonel Edgard Arevalo, declined to comment until the armed forces had the “whole picture on the current situation”.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has berated traditional ally the United States over several issues since he took office just over a year ago, while courting China for its business and investment, and avoiding the rows over maritime sovereignty that had dogged his predecessors.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, a waterway through which about US$3 trillion (S$4.1 trillion) worth of seaborne trade passes every year. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have conflicting claims in the area.

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims in the waters, where China has been building military facilities such as runways on the islands it controls.

The previous Philippine government filed a case in 2013 with the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague on maritime boundaries.

Last year, the tribunal invalidated China’s claim to sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, but Mr Duterte has put the ruling on the back burner and said he will revisit it later in his term. AGENCIES