Phl to file diplomatic protest anew vs China

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) will soon lodge another diplomatic protest against Beijing following sightings of China's concrete blocks in Philippine-claimed Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal.

"We are framing an appropriate diplomatic protest. Hopefully in the next few days," Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said in a radio report Thursday.

Del Rosario said that the construction in the disputed territory will be annexed in the country's existing arbitration case against China before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.

"I think that's a substantive piece of information that we can tag on to our arbitration case and have it worked positively for us," he said.

Department of National Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin on Wednesday showed photographs from a Navy aerial survey showing at least 75 concrete foundations in the shoal.

China, however, denied the Philippines' allegations and said that Panatag, which it calls Huangyin Island, is inherently part of its territory.

Related story: China denied constructing in Panatag

The DFA last filed a protest on May 10 condemning the presence of two Chinese surveillance ships and a warship  near Ayungin (Second Thomas) Reef off Palawan.

China claims 90 percent of the South China Sea including the Spratlys group of islands in the West Philippine Sea which are within the country's exclusive economic zone. - Camille Diola