Defense officials on Tuesday inaugurated a cemented pier that would let their ships dock on Pag-Asa Island whose waters were deluged by more than a hundred Chinese boats last year.
The pier, also known as a “beaching ramp,” is the first major upgrade of the Philippines in the nine features it occupies in the West Philippine Sea, parts of which are also claimed by Beijing.
The West Philippine Sea is the country’s exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea. Pag-asa Island hosts Kalayaan town, a Palawan municipality that is home to a military outpost and a civilian community. It has a school, military barracks and a runway, among other infrastructures.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Felimon Santos Jr., Navy Flag Officer-in-Command Vice Admiral Giovanni Bacordo, Air Force chief Lt. Gen. Allen Paredes, Army Chief Lt. Gen. Gilbert Gapay, and newly installed AFP Western Command chief Lt. Gen. Erickson Gloria inaugurated the structure.
READ: Ex-envoy: Seize China’s assets as damage payment
It was the first time they all visited the island at the same time.
But Lorenzana and the reporters who went to Pag-asa were surprised after a telco told them via text that they were in China and Vietnam.
The text messages said services were available via the telco’s roaming partners in those two countries.
“Welcome to Vietnam!” a portion of the message read.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque, meanwhile, said the relationship between the Philippines and China was “enjoying a renaissance” under the Duterte administration as the economic cooperation between the two countries remained strong.
He made the statement in a televised public press briefing as the two countries marked the 45th year of diplomatic relations.
“The Philippine government is hoping that these warming ties may lead to mutual prosperity and to the resolution of the disputes between the two nations,” Roque said.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said the warm diplomatic relations between the Philippines and China “has not cooled” down, but instead had bloomed into a new partnership for mutual benefits and progress despite the maritime dispute over some territories in the South China Sea.
“The feeling of warm friendship has not cooled, let alone been lost, not even in our differences. But under President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, that old friendship has flowered into a new partnership for mutual profit and progress,” Locsin said in a two-page message marking the 45th anniversary of the diplomatic ties between the two countries.
In the Senate, Senator Risa Hontiveros said the suggestion to seize China’s assets in the Philippines as payback for the damage it had caused in the disputed territorial waters needed further study.
She made the comment after she was asked if such a move was allowed by the Constitution.
“Anything is possible, I guess. There was a whole spectrum of proposals that came out yesterday, and that one was on the spectrum end of hard diplomacy–very provocative,” Hontiveros told ANC.
“That is something that we should study since it came out of the webinar as a proposal. I believe it was from former [Foreigh Affairs] Secretary Del Rosario. It is something that we should study.”
A former official, meanwhile, said “It is the surrender policy of the Duterte regime to China on the dispute in the West Philippine Sea that makes it a perpetrator of oppression against the Filipino fishermen.
“It’s a sell-out of national sovereignty, patrimony and fishing rights. It is futile to beg this regime to fulfill its mandate but pressing it could only be through mounting protests,” Anakpawis Party-list former Rep. Ariel Casilao said in statement to mark the first anniversary of the June 9, 2019 ramming of a Filipino fishing boat by a Chinese vessel in Recto Bank.
During the blessing and ribbon-cutting ceremony for the beaching ramp, the ABS-CBN News team spotted several Chinese vessels around the island, including a white Coast Guard vessel, two blue and white barges similar to those circling Scarborough Shoal, and several smaller fishing boats.
These were visible in the background of the BRP Ivatan, the first Philippine Navy vessel to dock on the beaching ramp.
Lorenzana said the ramp would pave the way for more visits by Philippine officials and would make it easier to bring in materials for the repair and construction of the island’s airstrip.
He said he did not mind the presence of the Chinese militia as long as Filipinos were not hurt or harassed.
Kalayaan Mayor Roberto del Mundo said the beaching ramp could also let the island invite more visitors and increase their commercial fishing capability.
Del Mundo said he was bothered by the presence of the Chinese militia and coast guard whose ships followed Philippine boats if they got too close.
He said the military had barred residents from going to two of their three sandbars due to the constant presence of Chinese vessels there.