MANILA, Philippines — China has created new artificial islets in two more reefs in the disputed South China Sea, which the Philippine military fears is meant to choke off its access to Ayungin shoal, where a crumbling Philippine Navy ship is beached.
In an interview, former Air Force officer Rep. Francisco Acedillo, now partylist representative of the Magdalo party, showed the latest maritime surveillance photos revealed how China's land reclamation is expanding to cover all the seven reefs it occupies.
The latest reclamation work is being done on Mischief and Subi reefs, known to the Philippines as Panganiban and Zamora, which are fast catching up with the five other reefs where China had done reclamation work early last year.
Acedillo branded this move as "graver danger to the country's national security."
The photos, taken at an altitude of 5,000 feet,show multi-storey buildings, deep harbors, and airstrips being constructed.Also sighted were cargo and supply vessels steadily hauling construction materials in reclaimed lands.
"I warn my colleagues in Congress and the Filipino people of an impending danger to our national security and it's right at our doorstep, less than 50-kilometers away from our AyunginShoal and roughly 400-km away from Palawan," Acedillo said.
Dredging on Mischief Reef began on January 14 this year and has already formed an artificial islet which now measures around 32,062 square meters from 1,909 square meters as of Feb. 2013. At Subi reef, the PH military has monitored six cutter suction dredger vessels continuously enlarging two artificial islets at the reef.
While reclamation is ongoing in Mischief and Subi (Zamora) Reefs, Chinese naval ships were sighted patrolling the area. In January, aJianghu class ship was sighted at Mischief Reef, while a Yuting II class landing ship was in Subi Reef.
Mischief Reef, lies 130NM from the coast of the Philippine island of Palawan, was occupied by China in 1995. Subi Reef is 230 nautical miles (NM) from mainland Palawan but it is close to Pag-asa, the largest island occupied by the Philippines.
The Philippine military believes that the reclamation of these two reefs for an expanded military presence is intended to choke off access to Ayungin shoal, where the Philippines maintains a military outpost in a rusty WWII warship beached there, the BRP Sierra Madre.
Philstar
