Foreign Secretary Perfecto R. Yasay Jr. on Thursday said Chinese President Xi Jinping has categorically told President Duterte that Beijing will not build any structure in the Scarborough Shoal.
When asked if it was Duterte who asked Xi not to build any structure in the disputed shoal, Yasay said: “Yes, they both agreed that China, so far as I understand it, that they have desisted from building on this.”
“I said it will be a game changer if they will construct or they will build structures there and convert it into artificial islands, that’s really a provocative act. That will blatantly undermine our claim, if they will do it,” he told reporters in a news briefing held in Manila. “But as I’ve said, I do not expect that China will do it and I expect China will not do it,” Yasay added.
He said, “If reports are correct, we also have made these commitments to the United States, but you know, these are things that were not blind to or refused to see. These are realities that we have to deal with when the time comes about.”
Yasay said that, following China’s perceived threat to proceed with more construction in the South China Sea, following their dramatic conversion of seven other island, complete with military facilities, the Americans helped release photographs of the activities to alert the Philippines and other claimant countries.
“In fact, intelligence reports coming from the Americans [said] they [China] are poised to send dredging vessels precisely to convert this shoal into artificial islands,” Yasay said. “But now, we’re are happy and assured that they will not do so and they deny that is part of their plans.”
According to Yasay, Duterte was able to get Xi’s assurance to stop its building spree in the South China Sea during the former’s four-day state visit to Beijing last October 18. “This was part of a clarification that we made and we were confident that was part of confidence measures that have enabled us to move forward and, you can see, our fishermen were able to fish in Scarborough,” he said.
Now that China’s attempts at island-building in the contested South China Sea had been neutralized, “perhaps, we could have a joint use of those facilities without passing any judgment as to who owns it for now, because it will probably be decided by the tribunal regarding jurisdiction.”
“But the opportunity to diffuse the tensions caused by the installation of the existing facilities is immense,” he said, agreeing to a suggestion that the reclaimed islands should be used by civilians, “jointly with Asean and China for the purpose of protecting the environment in that area.”
Aside from the Philippines and China, Vietnam, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia and Taiwan also claim the resource-rich waters in the Scarborough Shoal. “Let me emphasize what I said in our filing of the case before the Arbitral Tribunal. We never raised the issue of who owns what part of the sea that is part of the dispute we had with China,” Yasay said.
“The ruling did not pass upon ownership but ruled on the contested part of our exclusive economic zone. The Arbitral Tribunal, in fact, resoundingly validated our claim on that,” he added.