Defense Secretary Delfin N. Lorenzana has voiced out his concern over China’s unceasing military activities in the West Philippine Sea and Beijing’s encroachment into Philippine maritime territories.
“It’s very concerning. In fact, they have been doing the building of islands from reefs since, I think [dating back to] 2011, 2012. So it concerns us because they are encroaching on our EEZ [exclusive economic zone],” the defense chief, who is currently in the US, said.
Lorenzana, who was welcomed by Acting US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, took in questions from journalists, before officially meeting with his US counterpart.
The government said on Monday that it would be lodging a protest with Beijing over the presence of its fleet of fishing vessels forming a militia in the West Philippine Sea, particularly in the Pag-Asa Island.
The reported continued presence of more than 200 vessels since January in the island exacerbated the situation as Filipino fishermen reported recently that they were harassed and driven away by the Chinese coast guard in the Scarborough Shoal.
Lorenzana said that China also wanted to establish its presence at the former US naval base in Subic by expressing its interest in taking over the facility of the shuttered South Korean shipbuilding company Hanjin.
“They are interested in Subic. There are two Chinese shipbuilding companies who are interested…when they learn about the financial trouble of Hanjin, and they’re waiting in the wings,” the country’s defense chief said.
“But we are also talking to a lot of interested parties [from] the US, Japan, Korea, from European countries, and from Singapore and Indonesia,” he added.
Lorenzana’s presence at the Pentagon followed his meeting in Manila last week with a high ranking US defense official for preliminary talks on the possible improvement of the provisions of the Mutual Defense Treaty.
Reading a statement, Lorenzana said the alliance between the Philippines and US remain strong in spite of the complex and demanding security environment because of the close engagement and alliance of the two countries.
He encouraged both countries to continue working together in order to keep the momentum.
“I encourage our officials to stay in close consultations through existing dialogue mechanisms, [to] include but not limited to the Philippines-US Bilateral Strategic Dialogue or BSD and the Mutual Defense Board Security Engagement Board, or MDBSEB, which is held every year,” Lorenzana said.
The defense chief thanked the US for its continued assistance in building the capabilities of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and over its help in quelling terrorism activities waged by Islamic State-backed groups in Marawi City in 2017.
He, likewise, conveyed the country’s appreciation to the steady progress in the implementation of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca), as shown by the construction of a facility at the Basa Air Base in Floridablanca, Pampanga early this year.
Basa is one of the areas where Americans are to construct facilities for their assets and equipment under the Edca, which the Philippine government said could also be utilized for humanitarian assistance and disaster response.
In Batangas, meanwhile, authorities boarded a dredging vessel manned by nine Chinese crewmen after barangay officials reported that it was dredging sand at a protected marine area in the town of Lobo.
The Emerald dredging vessel was boarded by a composite team from the Philippine Coast Guard, Lobo Police Station, and Lobo Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office on Friday.