The Philippines will increase surveillance of reefs, shoals and islets in its South China Sea exclusive economic zone (EEZ) as the People’s Republic of China (PRC) denies that it’s building an artificial island on Sabina Shoal.
The Philippine Coast Guard in mid-May 2024 said it had deployed a ship to the Spratly archipelago, where it has accused the PRC of developing the shoal. The Philippines documented what it said were piles of dead and crushed coral on the sandbars.
National Security Council (NSC) chief Eduardo Ano has ordered a tighter guard within Manila’s 200-nautical mile (about 400-kilometer) EEZ as a long-standing diplomatic row with Beijing intensifies, NSC spokesman Jonathan Malaya said.
“It is our responsibility under international law to guard [the locations] and ensure that the environment there would not be damaged and that there won’t be reclamation activities,” Malaya said.
The PRC illegally claims most of the South China Sea, including areas claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam, and has built maritime features, including military outposts. An international tribunal ruled in 2016 that Beijing’s claims to the vital waterway have no basis under international law, a decision the PRC continues to ignore.
The PRC dismissed the Sabina Shoal accusation as “groundless and pure rumor.”
The Philippine Coast Guard’s presence at Sabina Shoal has deterred the PRC from reclamation activities, spokesman Jay Tarriela said, and scientists will now determine whether the piles of coral are naturally occurring or were placed there.
He said the Coast Guard will keep a presence at the shoal, about 220 kilometers from the Philippines’ Palawan province. “Not only does this pose a threat to our sovereignty, but it also causes significant damage to our marine environment,” Tarriela posted on social media.
The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative and the China Ocean Institute, both based in the United States, reported in December 2023 that the South China Sea had suffered “the largest active man-made reef destruction in human history,” naming the PRC as the most egregious culprit by far.
Sabina Shoal is the rendezvous point for vessels resupplying Philippine troops stationed at Second Thomas Shoal, where the Chinese coast guard has blocked, rammed and fired water cannons at Philippine supply boats.
