Despite the expected adversarial stance coming from Beijing, the construction of new facilities and repairs of the dilapidated runway in the Philippine-controlled Pag-asa Island or Thitu Island in the disputed West Philippine Sea waters will soon start after more than P1.6 billion have already been earmarked, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said Friday.
In a Palace news briefing, Lorenzana announced that they have already awarded the contracts for the construction of new facilities and repairs of facilities following President Rodrigo Duterte’s instructions to push through with the improvement of the Philippine-owned island.
“It will be done in stages. The first stage is to construct a beaching ramp for our ship to dock so that we can bring in construction materials and heavy equipment. After that is finished, they will bring in the construction materials. Then, they will repair the runway,” the Defense secretary said.
“And then later on, they will extend for another 55 meters to make it viable for bigger aircrafts. Our timetable is maybe 18 months, [repairs will be finished],” he added.
Also to be constructed were desalination facilities, the Defense chief said.
He added that they are confident that China would not carry out “violent actions” against the Philippines, since both countries already established “good working relationship.”
Beijing had earlier deemed as “illegal” the Philippine government’s plan to overhaul the structures in the disputed isles.
“I don’t think they will do any violent action. They will protest. I was told by [Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Zhao Jianhua] that anything we do there, they are going to protest. It’s okay. Anyway, whatever you do there, they also protest,” Lorenzana said.
“What we are doing is improving our own, the islands that we are occupying. We have occupied since 1969, the first time we occupied those islands there in the Kalayaan Island Group. So that’s the status quo now. I’m sure that the repair of Pagasa will go on smoothly,” he added.
The disputed island recently became a point of contention after “extraordinary activities” of Chinese vessels were earlier observed in unoccupied sandbars.
Thitu Island, with an area of 37.2 hectares (92 acres) and lies about 480 kilometers (300 mi) west of Puerto Princesa City in Palawan, is the second largest of the naturally occurring islands in the Spratly Island chain and the largest of the Philippine-administered islands.
In the same interview, Lorenzana said that the government may start to install permanent structures on Philippine Rise within two years in efforts to assert the country’s ownership to the newly-discovered 3-million-hectare territory near Aurora.
“If we have the funds and we get the correct technology, maybe in two years’ time. In two years’ time, we’ll be able to start and maybe another one year to establish it there,” he said.
“We want to have a platform na pwedeng mag-land ang helicopter, our ship can also go near there and dock para naman we will have some presence there. Plus we can… we can put there marine biologist, ‘yung mga scientist natin to study the area,” he added.
President Duterte last May signed Executive Order No. 25 renaming the Benham Rise to Philippine Rise.
Benham Rise, which is potentially a rich source of natural gas and other resources such as heavy metals is about 2,000 to 5,000 meters deep, but remains largely unexplored.
In 2012, the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Contintental Shelf (UNCLCS) confirmed Benham Rise as part of the Philippines’ continental shelf.
Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the continental shelf comprises the seabed and subsoil of the submarine areas 200 nautical miles (NM), or 370 kilometers, from a state’s baselines or “edges.”