President Rodrigo Duterte ordered troops to scrap plans of building a fishermen’s shelter on a sandbar in the disputed South China Sea in August, Defense Chief Delfin Lorenzana said on Wednesday.
He said the plan to build the structures on a 500-square-meter (5,382-square-foot) outcrop located just off Thitu island was shelved after Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano advised Duterte there was an agreement between the two nations not to put up structures on new South China Sea features.
“We did not occupy it but some of our fishermen would like to establish a shelter there. They (China) saw it and they complained, so we had to pull out,” Lorenzana said.
Prior to his departure for Vietnam on Wednesday, Duterte clarified China did not make a “strong” reaction, adding “they allowed us to fish” there.
“Do not do anything that will disturb the equilibrium that is now present there,” he said, in explaining the decision.
China claims most of the strategically vital sea, through which $5 trillion in annual shipping trade passes, and which is believed to sit atop vast oil and gas deposits.
Its claims overlap with those of Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei, as well as Taiwan. (Agence France Presse)