'Radar installation in Spratlys won't affect ties with China'

MANILA, Philippines - The installation of radars in the disputed Spratly Islands will not affect the country’s relations with China, one of the claimant countries, Malacañang said yesterday.

“I don’t think it should annoy them. We have the right to put up the necessary equipment that we see fit to defend our borders,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said in a briefing.

He said the installation of radars in the West Philippine Sea is “not only meant for military use.”

Lacierda also said that the purchase of the Hamilton Class cutter, when it was still in the planning stages, was conveyed to the Chinese defense minister during his visit to Manila. “And the Defense minister said that we understand your situation. It’s not something that should offend anyone. It’s the inherent and sovereign right of our country to defend itself and to modernize whatever equipment they see fit,” he maintained.

 In a related development, a diplomatic cable titled “Philippine Compromise on Spratlys Draws PRC Ire” sent by former US Ambassador Kristie Kenney in February 2009 to Washington said the Senate and House of Representatives agreed to exclude the disputed Spratly Islands from the country’s baselines, defining them instead under the terms of the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) as a “regime of islands” which are still subject to Philippine claims. “President (Gloria Macapagal) Arroyo has indicated that she will sign the bill into law soon. Notwithstanding Chinese diplomatic protests over the Philippines’ Spratlys claims, the accommodation achieved in the Philippine Congress appears to offer the best hope of moderating tensions in Southeast Asia over the disputed islands, while defusing past charges in the Philippine Congress and the media that the Arroyo administration has performed inadequately in defending Philippine sovereignty over these islands,” the cable said.

The 2002 ASEAN-China Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea lowered tensions in the region, and in 2005, the Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking (JMSU) agreement among China, Vietnam, and the Philippines coordinated “pre-exploration” of possible hydrocarbon reserves. – With Pia Lee Brago