Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario: Validating. 蜜桃工作室 FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines鈥揟he Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is verifying whether some of the five islands on which China has said it plans to build lighthouses are located in Philippine waters, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario said.
For this reason, the DFA cannot yet comment on the report that China intends to build lighthouses on five islands in the South China Sea, two of them said to be in waters also being claimed by Vietnam.
鈥淏ecause we are not sure鈥� we have to validate before we speak about it,鈥� Del Rosario told reporters on Monday.
The DFA has to 鈥渇irst determine where those places are, whether they are part of the聽Kalayaan聽group of islands or (are in) our exclusive economic zone鈥� before making a response, said Assistant Secretary Charles Jose, the DFA spokesman.
鈥淥ur policy office is still studying that,鈥� Jose said.
Chinese state media last week said Chinese authorities had been surveying sites since July 7 for lighthouses on five islands, known in English as North Reef, Antelope Reef, Drummond Island, South Sand and Pyramid Rock.
笔补谤补肠别濒蝉听驳谤辞耻辫听
It was reported that Drummond Island and Pyramid Rock are in the聽Paracels聽group, which is controlled by China but claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan.
It was not certain whether the other three islets were also located in disputed waters.
The report of China鈥檚 latest move in the disputed areas of the South China Sea came as the Philippines campaigned for and obtained support from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) on a triple action plan (TAP) to ease tensions there during the just-concluded聽Asean聽ministerial meeting in Burma (Myanmar).
The plan, which the United States also supports, proposes a freeze in activities that might escalate tension in the disputed waters.
Exercise self-restraint聽
With聽Asean聽agreeing to put the TAP under further study, Del Rosario suggested that the regional association look at Article 5 of the 2002 Declaration of Conduct in the South China Sea (DOC) which聽Asean聽and China signed and 鈥渟ee how (to) operationalize that.鈥�
Article 5 calls for the parties concerned to exercise self-restraint.
鈥淚 mean when you say practice self-restraint, maybe, as US State Secretary John Kerry had said, you can say that there should be no building of massive reclamation, we should not engage in massive reclamation. That鈥檚 a start. We should not occupy unoccupied features. That鈥檚 a second start,鈥� he said.
鈥淪o let鈥檚 try to build confidence if we can do that but the DOC has been there since 2002. We keep talking about it but nobody follows it,鈥� Del Rosario said.
Implementing DOC聽
He also said there was a need for聽Asean聽to remind China about implementing the DOC.
鈥淚 think if聽Asean聽can make the point with China strongly that we should have a serious, effective implementation of the DOC, especially Article 5 as a starter, then I think we鈥檙e in business,鈥� Del Rosario said.
This would be assuming, of course, that China recognizes that there is a problem in the South China Sea, which it said there wasn鈥檛 at the recent聽Asean聽meeting in Burma, he said.
鈥淵ou can鈥檛 solve a problem if you don鈥檛 recognize that there is one,鈥� Del Rosario said.
Even before Del Rosario campaigned in Burma for the TAP, China had already rejected the proposal.
But Del Rosario said his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, had said that 鈥渟omething like it needed to be studied.鈥�