China could build monitoring station on Bajo de Masinloc —Carpio

China is expected to build a monitoring station on Bajo de Masinloc (Scarborough Shoal) and the Philippines should be ready to respond through diplomatic, legal, and military efforts, according to former senior associate justice Antonio Carpio on Thursday.

As China announced its plan to construct a “nature reserve” in the disputed area, Carpio pointed out that this may be similar to the process of Beijing’s militarization of Fiery Cross Reef and Mischief Reef in the past decades. 

“The same playbook is being used on Scarborough Shoal.  China is saying, we're putting up a nature reserve. Now, to operate a nature reserve, you must monitor it and it can be manned. Your monitoring station can be manned. So, it looks like that is a playbook of China,” Carpio said in an ambush interview.

Carpio was part of the Philippine delegation in the 2013 arbitration case against China, which led to the landmark victory for Manila in 2016.

He said that in 1987, China erected a radar weather station on Fiery Cross Reef but later on converted the facility into an air and naval base. The reef is 108 nautical miles west of the Philippines.

“Nobody complained because it was a very harmless radar weather station to help UNESCO in its global oceanic survey. Pero nagkaroon ng (But it became a) foothold, China was able to man it,” Carpio said.

“And then later on, it became an air and naval base, a three-kilometer runway,” he added.

China also built fishermen shelters on Mischief Reef but later on converted “into the biggest air and naval base of China in the South China Sea,” according to Carpio.

“The same thing happened to Mischief Reef. Sabi ng China, we're just putting up a fisherman's shelter. Nakita mo naman sa mga (You can see them in) pictures, they were just concept huts. At sabi ng China (China claimed), this is for everybody if they need to have a shelter, the fishermen, in case of a storm,” he said. 

“But now, that has been converted into the biggest air and naval base of China in the South China Sea,” he added. Mischief Reef is only 130 nautical miles away from Palawan.

GMA News Online has sought comment from the Chinese Embassy in Manila about the matter but it has yet to provide a statement as of the publication of this story.

Carpio said the Philippines should be ready to respond, fight China's alleged disinformation with supposed historical claims, file another arbitration case against Beijing, and acquire more BrahMos missiles.

Philippine Navy spokesperson for West Philippine Sea Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad said they have contingency plans in case of escalatory actions from China.

“The government has been very clear that all our actions will be to ensure that the integrity of the national territory will remain,” Trinidad said in an ambush interview.

“In the event that there would be actions from the other side that are deemed escalatory, we have the appropriate contingency plans in place to ensure that not one square inch of our territory will be lost,” he added.

According to Trinidad, obtaining more missile systems has been a part of the modernization program of the Philippine military.

“Part of the modernization plans of the Armed Forces includes looking at other missile systems or rather more missile systems. Details of that are at the Department of National Defense,” the Navy official said.

Bajo de Masinloc is located 124 nautical miles off Masinloc, Zambales, and is considered within the Philippines’ 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

Tensions continue as Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion of annual shipborne commerce, including parts claimed by the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei.

Parts of the South China Sea that fall within Philippine territory have been renamed by Manila as West Philippine Sea to reinforce the country’s claim.

The West Philippine Sea refers to the maritime areas on the western side of the Philippine archipelago including Luzon Sea and the waters around, within and adjacent to the Kalayaan Island Group and Bajo de Masinloc.

In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines over China's claims in the South China Sea, saying that it had "no legal basis."

China has refused to recognize the decision. —RF, GMA Integrated News