PAGASA Island, also known as Thitu Island, is located 480 kilometers west of southwestern Palawan. Once housing a military installation, it was opened to civilian settlement in 2002. It now has a thriving community of fishermen with their families, with its own town mayor. It is considered part of Palawan province.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and Armed Forces chief of staff Gen. Eduardo Año visited Pagasa Island last Friday. There the secretary announced that the national government has allocated R1.6 billion for the construction of a fishport, improvement of the existing runway and of the quarters of soldiers stationed there, and to set up a marine research and tourist center.
On their way to the island last Friday, the planes bearing Secretary Lorenzana and General Año were challenged by Chinese forces, claiming they were flying near an area filled with newly built Chinese installations on nearby Subi Reef. But the Philippine planes ignored the warning and continued on their way to Pagasa. The next day, the Chinese government, in a statement issued by Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang, said China was “gravely concerned and dissatisfied” over the incident.
Pagasa is one of ten islands we have long been occupying in that part of the South China Sea which former President Benigno S. Aquino III renamed West Philippine Sea in 2012. China bases its claim on a nine-dash line it drew around the South China Sea based, it said, on an old Chinese map. It claims the entire area – with all the islands inside it, saying its sovereignty over the area is indisputable.
Rejecting this nine-dash-line claim, the Philippines – along with Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan – is holding on to certain islands in the sea. In 2012, the Aquino administration filed a case with the United Nations Arbitral Court which, in 2016, rejected China’s claim as without basis. President Duterte has wisely chosen to set aside this ruling for a while, knowing China is dead-set against any opposition to its claims of sovereignty and the Philippines is in no position to enforce its claim.
Secretary Lorenzana’s visit may represent a new turn in Philippine strategy on its claims in the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea. He and General Año went to Pagasa last Friday, simply ignored China’s attempt to turn them away – at great risk to their safety – and announced R1.6 billion worth of island improvements, much like national government aid to other Philippine towns.
The secretary said nothing about the Arbitral Court ruling; we are simply improving a Philippine community, providing funds for a Philippine town. The national government thus continues to carry on President Duterte’s declaration that he is not going to use the ruling to push any claims against China.
When the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meet this week in Manila, they are expected to take up a long-standing proposal for a Code of Conduct for all nations concerned in the South China Sea. This will not be a legal solution – but it should serve to preserve peace in the region until a more permanent solution can be found.