{"id":151313,"date":"2018-02-06T01:56:34","date_gmt":"2018-02-06T06:56:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=151313"},"modified":"2018-02-06T01:56:34","modified_gmt":"2018-02-06T06:56:34","slug":"report-negates-palace-statement-on-china-militarization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/02\/06\/report-negates-palace-statement-on-china-militarization\/","title":{"rendered":"Report negates Palace statement on China militarization"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"(Photo:<\/a>
The report further read that the Fiery Cross Reef was the most constructed, covering 27 acrew or about 110,000 square meters (Photo<\/a>: ASIA MARITIME TRANSPARENCY INITIATIVE<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A report by Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) last year invalidated the Palace\u2019s claim that China\u2019s militarization of its man-made islands along areas in the Philippine territory was done during the past administration.<\/p>\n

Malaca\u00f1ang, through Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr., defended the administration during a press briefing yesterday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I said this militarization, if you can call it militarization, did not happen during the Duterte administration alone. It\u2019s been long militarized and the question is, \u2018what can we do?\u2019 What did the past administration do and what can we do?\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

Contrary to his statement, AMTI\u2019s report in December 2017 states the developments started in early 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese facilities account for about 72 acres, or 290,000 square meters, of new real estate at Fiery Cross, Subi, and Mischief Reefs in the Spratlys, and North, Tree, and Triton Islands in the Paracels,\u201d it read.<\/p>\n

The report further read that the Fiery Cross Reef was the most constructed, covering 27 acres or about 110,000 square meters.<\/p>\n

These militarization developments included air and naval bses, radar and sensor arrays, underground storage areas, administrative buildings, hardened shelters for missile platforms, and communication facilities.<\/p>\n

During the press briefing, Roque insisted that China has not built new artificial islands when President Rodrigo Duterte assumed office in 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, what do you want us to say? All that we could do is to extract a promise from China not to reclaim any new artificial islands. But what you featured in your newspaper today, are old reclaimed islands that were there even before the Duterte administration came to office,\u201d he further said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the Aquino administration was not able to do anything about these artificial islands, what [do] they want us to do? We cannot declare war. Not only is it illegal, but it is also… because it\u2019s impossible for us to declare war at this point,\u201d Roque added.<\/p>\n

The Aquino administration filed a case in 2013 to oppose China\u2019s claim in the South China Sea, but did not stop China\u2019s militarization.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, the posture of the President is maintain close ties so they wouldn\u2019t have any reason to use those arms in those islands,\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

In December last year, Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said that they are aware of China\u2019s movements, opposed to Roque\u2019s claim of not knowing.<\/p>\n

(Read: On China expansion: DND knows, Palace doesn\u2019t<\/a>)<\/p>\n

The spokesman told the media in a text message on December 25, \u201cWe don\u2019t know where these works are. We continue to rely on China\u2019s good faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Lorenzana told PhilStar that they are aware of China\u2019s activities and that the government has a \u201cWest Philippine Sea Task Force\u201d in-charged of monitoring the development in the disputed waters.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course! We have known where they reclaimed and what improvements they have been doing,\u201d Lorenzana said in the same interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe latest report was that the Chinese continue to improve their reclaimed islands \u2013 two are within our EEZ (exclusive economic zone) and one in the Kalayaan Island Group,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Lorenzana also said that the government will protest the militarization in a diplomatic way.<\/p>\n

(Read:\u00a0PH to file diplomatic protest vs China reef militarization<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A report by Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) last year invalidated the Palace\u2019s claim that China\u2019s militarization of its man-made …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":151394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[45966,420,12748,15359,2444],"class_list":["post-151313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-asia-maritime-transparency-initiative","tag-china","tag-delfin-lorenzana","tag-harry-roque","tag-rodrigo-duterte","mauthors-bea-kirstein-t-manalaysay","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151313","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=151313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}