MANILA – The Philippines has started repairs to its crumbling runway in Pag-asa Island in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), according to the think tank Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI).
But a professor of maritime affairs and laws of the sea believes the Philippines’ recent activities on Pag-asa Island are long overdue.
Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said in a statement that the “repair of port facilities in Pag-asa is consistent with our national sovereignty and jurisdiction.”
“Satellite imagery from May 17 shows two barges anchored just off the western edge of the Thitu (Pag-asa) Island runway, which collapsed into the sea years ago,” the AMTI said.
“It appears that a grab dredger, consisting of a crane with a clamshell bucket, is installed on the smaller barge to the west, while the other carries a backhoe,” the think tank added.
“Loose sediment from dredging can be seen in the water around the two barges and freshly deposited sand is visible along the northern edge of the runway,” said the ATMI.
This method of dredging is similar to the one Vietnam used in many of its outposts in recent years, the think tank added, noting that this affects surrounding reefs in a small scale.
Defense officials in April 2017 announced that they would upgrade facilities in the Philippines’ occupied islands and reefs in the West Philippine Sea but little work was apparent until now, the AMTI said.
But Professor Jay Batongbacal said the repair on a collapsed runway in Pag-asa – the largest of nine features in the Spratly islands – may not have any big impact on the Philippines’ claims in the West Philippine Sea.
“It is an exercise of our rights and it is long overdue, although it really does not have an impact compared to what the Chinese have been doing,” Batongbacal told a cable news channel on Sunday.
Batongbacal said the Philippines must be lauded for maintaining self-restraint while other claimants in the West Philippine Sea started were already building weapons systems.
“In a way it (Philippines) is really the most benign of all the countries,” he said. “We are exercising the most self-restraint at this point. I think the Philippines must be commended for keeping it that way.”
Previously Roque said President Rodrigo Duterte might visit Pag-asa Island before his term ends, which would “serve as a statement of sovereignty.”
“I think time will really come that the President will visit Pag-asa Island,” Roque said. “If the President will not do it now, I think, before his term will be finished, he will go there, not only to show to the world our entitlement in Kalayaan but to visit our soldiers and our countrymen living there.”
The Spratlys is also known as the Kalayaan Group of Islands.
China has made sweeping claims over the West Philippine Sea, presenting a map with a “nine-dash line” that covers the areas it supposedly owns – practically the entire body of water – including the Spratlys.
But in July 2016 the United Nations-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration ruled in favor of the Philippines’ arbitration case, saying China’s nine-dash line map had no legal basis. (With reports from Philippine News Agency and ABS-CBN News/PN)
