Palace on South China Sea militarization: What can we do?

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine government continues to rely on China's promise that it will not reclaim new artificial islands in the South China Sea, Malacañang said Monday.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said that the newspaper report that China is nearly complete with its militarization of South China Sea is not news anymore.

"Those islands were reclaimed during even the time of the former administration. They were completed, in fact, during the time of the previous administration and I think whether or not we like it, they intended to use them as military bases," Roque said in a press briefing.

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Roque added that the Aquino administration was not able to anything about Beijing's island building activities in the contested waters.

Contrary to Roque's claim, the Aquino administration brought China's island building before the United Nations-backed tribunal based in The Hague, Netherlands. In July 2016, the arbitral tribunal issued a landmark ruling invalidating China's nine-dash line claim over the South China Sea.

The arbitral tribunal also ruled that China violated its commitment under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea when it constructed artificial islands in the Philippines' exclusive economic zone. The Duterte administration, however, has shelved this ruling in its talks with China.

The presidential spokesman further noted that the Philippines cannot declare war against China as it is prohibited under international law.

"What do you want us to do? We cannot declare war... It’s also because it’s impossible for us to declare war at this point," Roque said.

Roque stressed that the militarization in the South China Sea "did not happen overnight" and that the Philippine government is monitoring China's activities in the area.

"Who says we are not monitoring?" the Palace spokesman said.

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The Palace spokesman added that President Rodrigo Duterte is maintaining close ties with China so that they would not have reason to use its weapons on the artificial islands.

"If there is such militarization which China denies... The intent to use or to station military hardware has always been there even before the entry of the Duterte administration," he said.

Last month, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said that the Philippines will file a diplomatic protest against China for reneging on its promise not to militarize artificial islands in the disputed waters.

China, however, defended their "peaceful construction" of defense facilities and clarified that it is not directed at any country.

"China's peaceful construction on its own territory aims to make greater contributions to regional peace, navigation safety, disaster prevention and relief, maritime search and rescue and marine scientific research," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said.