Gov't starts repairs on Manila-controlled reefs in Spratlys

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has started beefing up its military facilities on islands and shoals it claims in the hotly contested South China Sea, a US-based think tank reported Friday, as rival claimant China continues to increase its power projection capabilities in the strategic waterway.

Showing satellite imagery, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative said the Philippines has begun long-delayed repairs to its crumbling runway at Thitu (Pag-asa) Island.

The porous runway's poor condition and a collapse of its western end had made landings and takeoffs dangerous for Philippine C-130 planes, especially after heavy rains.

Thitu—which was the site of a tense standoff with a Chinese flotilla last August—is the largest of Manila’s nine outposts in the disputed Spratly island chain and home to at least 100 civilians and a small group of troops, the AMTI noted.

According to the think tank, a comparison of recent imagery revealed that in addition to airstrip repairs, minor upgrades where made to facilities on Thitu, where at least seven new buildings have been constructed.

Little improvements were also seen at Commodore Reef (Rizal) and Loaita Cay (Panata Island)—where shelters have been built. Meanwhile, an empty field at Nanshan Island (Lawak) has been converted into a helipad.

“Philippine defense officials in April 2017 announced that they would be upgrading facilities at the country’s occupied islands and reefs, but little work was apparent until now,” said AMTI, which is part of Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The Philippines claims parts of the South China Sea within its exclusive economic zone and calls it the West Philippine Sea.

Ties between China and the Philippines soured after the previous Aquino administration filed a case in 2013 with a United Nations-backed tribunal. The ruling, which favors Manila, was handed down a few days after President Rodrigo Duterte assumed the presidency.

But China vehemently rejected the landmark decision, which Duterte put on the back burner in exchange for warmer ties and Chinese funding for his administration’s ambitious infrastructure program.

Bombers

AMTI’s latest report came after China announced it had landed strategic bombers, including the top-of-the-line nuclear-capable H-6K, on an outpost in the South China Sea.

Nearly all of the Philippines falls within the radius of the strike aircraft, the AMTI said.

Beijing had also reportedly installed anti-ship cruise missiles and surface-to-air missile systems on three Manila-claimed reefs in the sea.

But Duterte said it’s pointless to protest Beijing’s deployment of its air assets to the contested waters and dared his critics to “go to war with China.”

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying earlier said China has been involved in peaceful construction in the islands, which includes “the deployment of necessary national defense facilities.”

In response, the White House warned Asia’s top economic power of “near-term and long-term consequences” over its growing militarization in the South China Sea. The US did not say what the consequences would be.