After ruckus over Chinese 'structures' on Panatag, PNoy admits concrete blocks 'very old'

From InterAksyon (Oct 23): After ruckus over Chinese 'structures' on Panatag, PNoy admits concrete blocks 'very old'



Defense Sec Voltaire Gazmin showing concrete blocks at Panatag Shoal (InterAksyon file photo by Lira Dalangin-Fernandez)

After government earlier accused China of planning to build structures at Scarborough, or Panatag, Shoal, President Benigno Aquino III on Wednesday said there is no need to remove concrete blocks from the disputed territory as these were “very, very old.”

"There is no need to remove concrete blocks ...They do not represent any immediate danger to our vessels plying the Scarborough Shoal," Aquino said at the annual forum of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines. "The concrete blocks were very, very old. Some of them have barnacles attached to them. They don't seem to give us any reason to have increasing anxiety."

Last month, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin told a congressional hearing that China had violated a non-binding code by preparing to build new structures on Scarborough, showing lawmakers surveillance photos of the rocks.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario told Reuters in an earlier interview the government will file a diplomatic protest against China, saying Beijing was moving to occupy the shoal.

China denied the accusation and accused the Philippines of deliberately stirring up trouble over disputed waters in South China Sea, insisting Scarborough is Beijing's "intrinsic territory."

Panatag Shoal is also called Bajo de Masinloc by Manila and Huangyan Island by China.

Friction over the South China Sea or the West Philippine Sea as Manila calls it, one of the world's most important sea lanes, has surged as China uses its growing naval might to assert a vast claim over the oil-and-gas rich area more forcefully, raising fears of a military clash between it and other countries that border the area.

The Philippines is also fighting an unprecedented arbitration case under the United Nations' Convention on the Law of the Sea against China's claims and has ignored growing pressure from Beijing to scrap the action.

Any result will be unenforceable, legal experts say, but will carry considerable moral and political weight.

Aquino also said he does not share some analysts' views the Philippines has lost control over the shoal, saying local fishermen can still freely go there.

"We are not allowed to go to Scarborough Shoal seems to be an oxymoron ... there's no rule that says we can't go there," Aquino told FOCAP, insisting the disputed area is within the country's exclusive economic zone.

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/73345/after-ruckus-over-chinese-structures-on-panatag-pnoy-admits-concrete-blocks-very-old