The Philippines defuses Spratly tension

By Cecilia Quiambao

MANILA (JP): The arrival of armed Chinese vessels in the disputed Spratly Islands in the end of April ignited seven days of tension in the South China Sea, provoking a round of saber rattling and a flurry of diplomatic activity between Beijing and Manila.

On May 2, three of the armed vessels departed the vicinity of Philippine-held Panata Island, known by its international name as Loaita Island, nine days after the first of the vessels was spotted in the area by Philippine air force reconnaissance aircraft.

"We welcome the (pullout)," a relieved Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon said. "I have always said that in accordance with our (bilateral) code of conduct, there should be no surprises."

The Chinese side insists that they were a group of "research" vessels.

The matrix of the 59 islands, surrounded by cays, reefs and shoals, spreads over 161,000 square kilometers (62,000 square miles) of water near major shipping lanes. They are garrisoned by navies of five rival Asian claimant countries, with a sixth country laying claim to part of its surrounding waters.

The occupied islands form a complex pattern, making it difficult to delineate exactly whose territory are the surrounding waters. Loaita (Panata), for example, is flanked by islands held by China and Vietnam.

Major powers like the United States and neutral parties in Asia have urged claimants Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam to refrain from further troop deployments in the area to avoid complications in a situation which is already considered one of the region's powder kegs.

The latest standoff between China and the Philippines, militarily the strongest and weakest of claimant countries respectively, had drawn disturbing comparisons with an incident in 1995, when Philippine forces discovered that China had built manned structures on Mischief Reef, a Philippine-claimed portion of the Spratlys.

To this day, the structures, which Manila claims as heavily guarded, but Beijing insists as merely fishermen shelters, have remained despite diplomatic and other pressures applied by the Philippines -- including blowing up boundary markers put up in nearby areas by the Chinese side and buzzing Mischief Reef with its jet fighters.

However, the two sides agreed the same year to follow a "code of conduct" in the Spratlys, and to hold frequent bilateral consultations. A senior Chinese official is scheduled to arrive in Manila later this month for the latest round of talks.

The Philippines again sent jet fighters on missions over the Spratlys in the latest incident, while 200 Philippine marines reinforced garrisons on at least three of the eight islands they occupy. It was not immediately clear if the marines would also be withdrawn if the Chinese side relented.

Philippine legislators denounced China's move, particularly after the Philippines' gesture of providing temporary asylum for top North Korean official Hwang Jang-yop -- who had defected in Beijing in February -- to bail China out of a diplomatic crisis.

The Philippines' main concern over the latest round of Chinese activity in the area is the annexation of more unoccupied cays, reefs and shoals through the building of structures similar to those erected on Mischief Reef. The Chinese method, according to the Philippine navy, is to bore holes through the reef and pour concrete in for foundations for above-water structures.

A hut-like structure was monitored by the Philippine side on a reef close to Loaita (Panata) during the latest standoff, but it has since disappeared along with three of the four vessels, the Philippine military said.

"I am concerned it could become a bigger structure," Defense Secretary de Villa said recently.

John Avila, a political economist with the Manila-based think tank, Center for Research and Communication, said he viewed the latest Chinese move in the Spratlys in the context of "the huge energy needs of China".

Beijing has a similar quarrel with Hanoi over an area of the continental shelf off Vietnam where the Chinese have decided to press ahead with oil exploration, he said.

Experts say the nearby Spratlys could also be sitting on vast oil and gas reserves.

Philippine officials have no immediate explanation to China's quick about-face in the latest incident, which was in stark contrast to their unyielding posture in the Mischief Reef issue.

The Chinese foreign ministry told Philippine Ambassador to Beijing Romualdo Ong that the vessels left because they had completed their "research survey", Foreign Secretary Siazon said.

"The whole Southeast Asian region has had difficulty reading China's intentions because military commanders from relevant...southern Chinese provinces appear to exercise some degree of autonomy and take initiatives independent of whatever policy there might be in Beijing," University of the Philippines political scientist Alex Magno said.

This aspect of the Chinese equation "complicates the situation for all of us," he said.

Under Chinese legislation passed in 1988, the entire Spratly area and nearby Paracel Islands, also claimed by Vietnam, were incorporated into the southern province of Hainan. On several occasions, the Philippine navy has caught Hainan fishermen poaching in Philippine waters in the South China Sea. Four of the fishermen were sentenced to long prison terms, but were later pardoned and deported in 1995.

Magno said part of Manila's success this time came from drawing the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) into the controversy. ASEAN countries include Spratly claimants Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, as well as Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand.