MANILA, Philippines — A former Marine officer in the House of Representatives has filed a resolution calling on the appropriate panel to check the veracity of reports that China installed missiles and missile systems on three of its artificial outposts in the South China Sea.
Rep. Gary Alejano (Magdalo) urged the House to direct an investigation into the reported installation of Chinese surface-to-air and anti-ship cruise missiles on Kagitingan Reef (Fiery Cross), Zamora Reef (Subi) and Panganiban Reef (Mischief) in the Spratlys and to condemn the actions if proven true.
Alejano said that China installed YJ-12Bs, a land-based anti-ship cruise missile with a range of 295 nautical miles.
A nautical mile is around 1.85 kilometers long.
China also loaded its artificial outposts with HQ-9B, a long-range surface-to-air missile, which could hit targets within 160 nautical miles of the three reefs.
READ: Senate probe into Chinese missiles in South China Sea sought
“The missiles are capable of targeting vessels as far as the waters of Balabac, Palawan,” the Magdalo lawmaker said.
“The missiles located in Zamora, Kagitingan and Panganiban Reef are approximately a mere 13, 103 and 117 nautical miles away from Pag-asa Island, which is the largest Philippine-controlled island out of the nine features in Spratlys-respectively,” Alejano said in House Resolution 1842 urging for a probe into the missiles.
The former Marine officer said that the distance to Pag-asa Island from the closest missile installation on Zamora Reef is about the same as that between Quezon City and Taguig City.
Alejano’s resolution came a day after Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, who is also of the Magdalo group, urged the Senate to probe into the security situation in the disputed waters, through which around $3 trillion on trade passes yearly.
The Philippine government has vacillated in its response to the reported missiles in South China Sea, one day saying that it was still verifying the authenticity of the reports and on another telling reporters that Manila does not have the capability to do so.
READ: 'To verify' or 'can't verify?' Malacañang shifts rhetoric on Chinese missiles
Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said that Manila is looking at a multilateral approach to the issue, including involving Western powers such as the US.
President Rodrigo Duterte, the country’s commander in chief, meanwhile said that China has given him assurances that Beijing would protect the Philippines. He did not specify what China would protect the Philippines from.
Duterte has chosen to put on the back burner a 2016 arbitral United Nations-backed tribunal ruling which invalidated much of China’s claim to the region in an effort to forge closer economic ties with Beijing.
Alejano said that the latest “ostentatious display of aggression” by China in the dispute waters was a pressing national threat to our national security that if proven true should be condemned by Congress.
He also warned the government not to be lulled into complacency by Chinese promises of investments and loans.
“China has proven time and again that its word was and will never be its bond, at least in its dubious pronouncements of non-militarization and the halt in its illegal reclamation in the South China Sea,” Alejano wrote in the House resolution.
“Lest we commit treason, we must resist all attempts of Chinese encroachment on the territories well within our jurisdiction,” he added.