THE Philippines on Monday accused China of raising tensions again in the West Philippine Sea by conducting a test flight over a reef claimed by Manila.
“We will file [a protest] in due course. Fiery Cross or Kagitingan Reef is part of our Kalayaan Island Group,” Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose said.
China defended its move, saying the flight test was conducted to ensure that the reef it now occupies and transformed into an artificial island with a runway, adheres to safety aviation standards.
China has asserted its claim over nearly the entire South China Sea and has built man-made islands on seven reefs, including Fiery Cross, in a move that has triggered concerns among several nations, such as the Philippines, Vietnam, Unites States and Japan.
“The test flight of China in Kagitingan has definitely raised tensions in the region,” Jose said. “That’s the fear, that China will be able to take control of the South China Sea, and it will affect the freedom of navigation and freedom of overflight [and the] unimpeded flow of commerce.”
Vietnam, which also claims the reef, earlier lodged a protest against China’s test flight. Hanoi’s protest was rejected by Beijing, which insisted that its actions are within its sovereign rights.
South China Sea is home to vast oil and mineral deposits and to a cluster of contested islands, reefs and atolls further south, called the Spratlys.
The Philippines has adopted the name West Philippine Sea for parts of the waters that fall under its exclusive economic zone as allowed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have overlapping claims to the waters.
All claimants, except for Brunei, have stationed military troops in their territories in the vast sea, said to be sitting atop huge oil and gas deposits.
The Palace said Monday it was studying the ramifications of China’s latest act.
The Japanese government expressed its “grave concern” Monday over China’s landing of a plane on an airstrip it constructed in a contested part of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.
“Japan is gravely concerned about China’s act, which is a unilateral change of the status quo” in the region and an attempt to make Beijing’s massive and fast-paced land reclamation work in the disputed seas “a fait accompli,” Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida told a press conference.
Japan “cannot accept [the act] which is escalating tensions [in the region] and is a concern shared by the international community,” Kishida said. “Japan will continue to cooperate with other countries concerned to protect the freedom of the seas.”
Jose, meanwhile, said Manila is awaiting the final decision of the case the Philippines has filed against China with the arbitral tribunal of the United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea. China has refused to participate in the hearings and proposes bilateral talks instead.
But the Foreign Affairs Department said Monday that China had violated Unclos “by damaging the regional marine environment when it illegally transformed reefs into an artificial island and an airstrip.”
Sandy Araneta, PNA
