{"id":144776,"date":"2018-01-09T01:23:22","date_gmt":"2018-01-09T06:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=144776"},"modified":"2018-01-09T01:23:22","modified_gmt":"2018-01-09T06:23:22","slug":"ph-to-file-diplomatic-protest-vs-china-reef-militarization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/01\/09\/ph-to-file-diplomatic-protest-vs-china-reef-militarization\/","title":{"rendered":"PH to file diplomatic protest vs China reef militarization"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FILE:<\/a>
FILE: Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Delfin Lorenzana (PNA photo by Joey O. Razon)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Philippine government chose the diplomatic way in its protest on China\u2019s \u201cmilitarization\u201d in the Kagitingan (Fiery Cross) Reef.<\/p>\n

Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Delfin Lorenzana recalled on Monday the Chinese government\u2019s promise.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur stand here is that we will register our protest through the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) because I know for a fact that the Chinese government said some time ago that they are not going to militarize those reclaimed islands,\u201d Lorenzana told the media in a press briefing on Monday.<\/p>\n

The Defense Secretary made the statement days after the China Central Television, China\u2019s state broadcaster, showed shots of a hospital and a military base on the reef. He, however, cited that China said that \u201cthey are not militarizing the reefs but are doing it for peaceful purposes such as tourism.”<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if it is true that we can prove that they have been putting soldiers in there and even any weapons that would heighten their defensives there\u2026 that will be a violation of what they said,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

Lorenzana said that the West Philippine Sea Task Force headed by General Hermogenes Esperon is communicating with DFA for the protest.<\/p>\n

He then added, \u201cWe are going to urge for a protest if all these will be proven and if we can see that the Chinese are militarizing the area which is very near our place, the Fiery Cross.\u201d<\/p>\n

Furthermore, according to Lorenzana, they have received reports of the Chinese Coast Guard allegedly harassing Filipino fishermen, though he refused to give details about it.<\/p>\n

Fiery Cross Reef is within the locality of the Kalayaan Group of Islands at the West Philippine Sea near Palawan.<\/p>\n

Before 2018, Lorenzana has also mentioned reports of militarization \u2013 in which China claimed these developments as \u201creasonable.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Read: On China expansion: DND knows, Palace doesn\u2019t<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Philippine government chose the diplomatic way in its protest on China\u2019s \u201cmilitarization\u201d in the Kagitingan (Fiery Cross) Reef. Department …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":129407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[420,42416,12748,9396,3413,13742,42417,42418],"class_list":["post-144776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-china","tag-china-central-television","tag-delfin-lorenzana","tag-department-of-foreign-affairs","tag-department-of-national-defense","tag-hermogenes-esperon","tag-kalayaan-group-of-islands","tag-west-philippine-sea-task-force","mauthors-bea-kirstein-t-manalaysay","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}