Chinese ships depart disputed Spratly islands
Chinese ships depart disputed Spratly islands
PUERTO PRINCESA, Philippines (AFP): Three of the four Chinese ships which were seen skirting the disputed Spratly islands have left the area following an official protest from Manila, a senior Filipino military official said yesterday.
An unmanned structure built on a reef six nautical miles northeast of the Filipino-garrisoned island of Panata has also been "dismantled," Maj. Gen. Reynaldo Reyes told AFP. He did not say who built the structure or who removed it.
One armed Chinese ship is still in the area, Reyes, the military chief of the western Philippines, said from his headquarters in this western city.
Manila lodged a formal protest with Beijing Wednesday, demanding an explanation for the arrival of the armed vessels around the Philippine-garrisoned South China Sea islands of Kota and Panata.
It also sent a contingent of 200 Filipino marines Thursday night to beef up Philippine garrisons there, military sources here told AFP yesterday.
The marines, whose mother unit is based in the western city, arrived in the Spratlys aboard a Philippine navy ship escorted by one patrol boat, the sources said.
The soldiers were then split into three groups and deployed on the islands of Kota, Panata and Pag-asa alongside forces already stationed there.
The Spratly archipelago, which guards vital shipping lanes and is reputed to be rich in oil and gas, is claimed in whole or in part by Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
It was not immediately clear whether the departure of the ships and the dismantling of the reef structure would end the standoff, the second between the two countries since Manila discovered similar but manned structures on Mischief reef in the Spratlys in 1995.
Earlier yesterday Philippine Defense Secretary Renato de Villa expressed concern China could be building new structures on the reef near Panata.
"We do not know their intentions. But it concerns us that there is a hut-like structure on the shallowest part of this reef near Panata," de Villa said, without directly accusing the Chinese of having built the apparently unmanned structure, six nautical miles northeast of Panata.
"If they have intentions of constructing something similar there, they could do it during the good weather that is remaining," he said.
"I am concerned it could become a bigger structure," de Villa said, adding if there were to be a military confrontation, "we have all the right to defend ourselves."
Navy ships stationed in the western city of Puerto Princesa could be easily dispatched to the area, he added.
He described the Chinese ships as belonging to the Ganzhu class, a Yenli class, a Yannan class, and a fourth vessel having markings which read: "China Fishing Authority."
One of the ships was first monitored near Panata on April 23, and a reconnaissance flight spotted a second ship on April 26, the official said.
A third vessel was spotted the following day, when some movement was also detected, while the fourth ship was first seen on April 27.
On April 28 de Villa said the four armed vessels formed a "crescent-like formation" around Panata from the east.
Their presence there "is a violation of our code of conduct in terms of entering the area and that they are armed vessels," he said, referring to a bilateral agreement forged in 1995 after the Mischief reef standoff.