THE structural debris recently spotted at Panatag (Scarborough Shoal) were built by the Philippines, not by any foreign country, according to the Philippine Navy.
Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, Navy’s spokesman for the West Philippine Sea (WPS) made this clarification following the release by the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) of satellite images showing the structural debris at Panatag Shoal, also known as Bajo de Masinloc.
“What is clear is that these are the remnants of structures of the Philippines in the 80s and the 90s, and these were not built or established by any foreign power on Scarborough Shoal,” Trinidad said in a regular military briefing.
Trinidad, however, declined to give more details about the matter.
Trinidad earlier said there were “building blocks” spotted in the shoal back when there was still a US military base in the country.
During that time, he said the sandbank was used as a bombing range by the armed forces of the Philippines and the United States.
He also said in 1997, there was a marker — a steel structure — erected by China at the shoal, but was later blown up by the Philippine Navy.
On Nov. 3, 1999, the Philippine Navy ship BRP Benguet ran aground at Panatag, but it was later extricated on Nov. 29, according to the military.
To date, there are no structures erected on the shoal.
The 2002 Declaration of Conduct (DOC) of Parties in the South China Sea prohibits new occupation and building of structures in any maritime features in South China Sea, including in the West Philippine Sea.
The DOC was a document that China signed, along with the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
However, since its effective takeover in 2012, China enforced what experts called “exclusion zone enforcement” around the Panatag Shoal, barring Filipino fishermen from entering in a blatant disregard of the 2016 Arbitral Award which declared the area a common fishing ground for the Philippines, China, and Vietnam.
About a month after the August 11 collision of two Chinese ships in the area, Beijing announced its plans to establish a so-called “national nature reserve” at the shoal, which was immediately rejected by Manila and Washington.
