DFA: Pag-asa airstrip rehab won’t violate Code of Conduct in South China Sea

From GMA News (Mar 26): DFA: Pag-asa airstrip rehab won’t violate Code of Conduct in South China Sea
 

The government's planned rehabilitation of an eroded airstrip at the Pag-asa Island in the South China Sea would not be a violation of a 2002 non-aggression pact unlike China's massive land reclamation in the contested region, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said Thursday.

“It’s the massive reclamation which is intended to change the status quo of a certain feature that is what’s in question. So we’re taking the position that we can and this has always been our position that we can proceed with repair and maintenance,” Del Rosario said at a forum hosted by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines.

China, which is asserting ownership over nearly the entire contested waters, is currently reclaiming seven disputed features in the South China Sea.

The Philippines strongly protested such activities, saying China violated the spirit of the 2002 non-binding agreement it signed with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, called the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea or DOC.

Philippine officials said Chinese reclamation has included areas that are within Manila's territory.

The Philippine military has long planned to repair the runway on Pag-asa—the largest feature being occupied by Manila in an area which is home to a cluster of islands, reefs and atolls further south that’s called the Spratlys.

However, the Department of National Defense in October 2014 said that President Benigno S. Aquino III ordered a freeze in the repair and rehabilitation of the 1.4-km runway to show the Philippines has “moral high ground" amid its pending arbitration case against China.

Manila filed a complaint against China before a Netherlands-based tribunal in a bid to declare Beijing’s massive claim as illegal. A sizeable chunk of this claim, according to Philippine officials, infringes on the country’s jurisdiction.

“If we read into the DOC, massive reclamation is one activity whereas maintenance repair is another activity,” Del Rosario said.

China and the Association of South East Asian Nations or ASEAN, of which the Philippines and other South China Sea claimants Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei are members, signed the accord to ease tensions in the area. Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar are the other members of the ASEAN.

The DOC calls on all claimants to exercise restraint and stop new occupation of territories in the South China Sea. However, it lacks the power to sanction states that will violate its provisions.

China and ASEAN have yet to craft a code of conduct, which is envisioned to be a legally-binding document.

“I think the violation of the DOC is in terms of massive reclamation and we have said that maintenance and repair [are] not covered by the portion of the DOC which says repair and maintenance [do] not raise tension,” Del Rosario said.

Del Rosario, meanwhile, assured that any repair work will be undertaken with “great care” and that it will be done “in accordance with what is allowed under the DOC.”

 

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/459578/news/nation/dfa-pag-asa-airstrip-rehab-won-t-violate-code-of-conduct-in-south-china-sea