Defense chief on Philippine-occupied island in disputed seas

THE CHINESE Foreign Ministry has "lodged representations" with its counterparts in Manila after a delegation of Philippine defence and military staff paid a visit to the disputed Spratly island of Thitu on Friday.

A foreign affairs analyst believes Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana's visit to the Pag-asa Island signals a stronger position of the Philippines on the disputed seas.

"Every time our aircraft do resupply, they always challenge and we always tell them also that we are flying over Philippine territory", he said. He said his pilots disregarded the warning.

The incident comes two weeks after Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte called on Philippine troops to move to occupy unoccupied features in the South China Sea.

China claims most of the South China Sea and, in recent years, has been building up disputed reefs into islands that can house military facilities.

The Philippines won its case against China in 2016 when the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague threw out China's claim in nearly all of the South China Sea based on its nine-dash-line policy.

But Mr. Lorenzana's trip to the contested maritime feature did not sit well with China, with its foreign ministry qualifying that such activities "counter" the sweetening relations between Manila and Beijing that had soured due to the case filed, and won, by the Philippines before an global tribunal.

Defense chief on Philippine-occupied island in disputed seas

In media reports, Lorenza described the trip to Pagasa Island as a "normal visit within our territory". It's the only Philippine-occupied island in the Spratlys that is inhabited by civilians. "That's their protocol. That's procedural".

Despite China's repeated claims that it is not militarizing the disputed area, it was reported last month that the construction of its naval, air, radar and defensive facilities on Subi (Zamora), Mischief (Panganiban) and Fiery Cross (Kagitingan) Reefs was almost finished.

"Without the definition of these baselines, the law of the sea convention which recognizes the archipelagic principle may not be implemented by the Philippines either to claim its sovereign rights over maritime areas or to protect them against infringement of other countries, particularly the territorial seas and the continental shelf and the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)", he said. "We all know that China is the most powerful country in our neighborhood, they are economically powerful, also militarily", Lorenzana said.

Philippine flights then respond by stating their objective, "then everything will be back to normal", the officer said. Lorenzana said authorities have yet to get the fishermen's statements, but if true, the Philippines would file a diplomatic protest with China.

Union Reefs is 230km from the Philippine coast.

Lu added that since President Rodrigo Duterte's visit to China past year, both countries have been keeping "good communication on properly managing and resolving maritime issues".