PH, US slam China: Stop reclamations, militarizing disputed sea

From InterAksyon (May 28): PH, US slam China: Stop reclamations, militarizing disputed sea

The Philippines and United States urged China to stop all its reclamation activities in the West Philippine Sea, especially at the reefs within the municipality of Kalayaan Island Group (KIG).

The Chinese actions include incursions into Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal.

The call to China was intended to avoid miscalculations that could lead to possible but unnecessary or avoidable armed confrontation.

In a statement released Thursday by the Department of National Defense (DND), Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, who is currently in the US, slammed China's unilateral activities in the disputed sea as "inconsistent with international law."

"Actions that could lead to accidents and untoward incidents due to miscalculations should be avoided. For the US, reclamation activities must stop and militarization of the area avoided," Gazmin said.

Gazmin met with his counterpart, Secretary Ashton Carter, where they discussed the magnitude of China’s reclamation activities, converting Philippine reefs into artificial islands believed to be used for military operations and projection of naval power in the region.

Estimate shows more than $100 million of annual economic losses due to the massacre of coral reefs by China’s reclamations that will deny millions of Filipino fishermen and the next generations to come of their live and worst, endangers the ecological balance of country’s marine resources. 

"Unilateral actions escalate tensions which may lead to actual conflict. The rule of law should prevail," Gazmin said.

In a separate development, Caloocan Representative Edgar Erice filed House Resolution No. 2136 aimed at countering China's aggressive expansion in the disputed regional waters.

With Resolution 2136, Erice said it was time for the Philippines to tap the support of its allies against China's "bullying" through its unbridled reclamation activities.

He said the Philippine government should talk with the United States, Japan and other countries for the establishment of a military and economic facility in the Kalayaan Island Group.

"It is high time for the Philippines to initiate the formation of an alliance with other interested countries that will function, not only as a deterrent to the expansionist designs of China, but also as a mechanism for the sustained development of the Kalayaan Island Group, which will also provide additional employment opportunities to Filipinos," Erice said in his resolution.

In pressing for his proposal, Erice said that "efforts at amicable settlement of the said territorial dispute among the claimant countries have consistently failed."

According to Defense Secretary Gazmin, the United States expressed alarm over the developments and, at the same time, supported the Philippines' resorting to international arbitration, which China continues to reject by unilaterally imposing its so-called "nine-dash-line" that practically covers 90 percent of the South China Sea and large portions of the West Philippine Sea.

Other claimant-countries of the disputed sea include Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Brunei.

Gazmin said Carter reiterated that the US remains committed to Philippines-US Mutual Defense Treaty.

He said both militaries will continue to deepen bilateral defense and military relations through combined activities and regular policy consultations to ensure that positions and actions are coordinated.

"Both militaries will explore opportunities for developing each other’s defense posture," Gazmin said.

The Kalayaan Island Group is within the 350 nautical miles from the baselines of the Philippine archipelago, which means that the country has the sovereign right to explore and exploit the natural resources in the area in accordance with Article 77 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Despite this, China has undertaken massive reclamation of the islands, which ,according to the Department of Foreign Affairs, has resulted in the destruction of some 121 hectares of coral reef systems equivalent to economic losses to coastal states estimated at $100 million.

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/111321/ph-us-slam-china-stop-reclamations-militarizing-disputed-sea