China’s massive reclamation activities in the disputed West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) are causing irreversible and widespread damage to the area’s biodiversity, threaten peace and stability in the region and cost some $100 million (about P4.5 billion) in annual economic losses to coastal states, including the Philippines, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) warned yesterday.
In a strongly worded statement, DFA Spokesman Charles Jose said China’s continued development in the area, also being claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei, is unacceptable.
He demanded that China immediately stop its reclamation project.
“We cannot accept China’s claim that its activities has not caused damage to the ecological environment of the South China Sea,” Jose said in a press briefing.
Citing scientific studies, Jose said the destruction of 300 acres of coral reef systems resulting from the reclamations is estimated to lead to economic losses to coastal states valued at $100 million annually.
He also accused China of tolerating environmentally harmful fishing practices by its nationals at Bajo De Masinloc. This, he added, breaches its obligations under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
Jose said China “has pursued these activities unilaterally, disregarding peoples in the surrounding states who have depended on the sea for their livelihood for generations.”
The statement issued by the Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hua Chunying on April 9, he pointed out, served to “raise the spectre of increasing militarization and threaten peace and stability in the region.”
Manila Bulletin
