The Senate will investigate the reported deployment by China of missiles on three Philippine-claimed reefs in the Spratly archipelago, and press the Department of…
The Senate will investigate the reported deployment by China of missiles on three Philippine-claimed reefs in the Spratly archipelago, and press the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to explain how it will respond to Beijing’s actions, Senate leaders said on Sunday.
An opposition lawmaker also said on Sunday that he would file a resolution in the House of Representatives for an investigation of China’s “creeping invasion” of Philippine territory in the South China Sea.
US news network CNBC, citing sources with direct knowledge of US intelligence reports, said last Wednesday that China had deployed antiship cruise missiles and surface-to-air missile systems on Kagitingan, Zamora and Panganiban reefs in the Spratly archipelago.
China neither confirmed nor denied the report, but foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said “China’s peaceful construction in the Spratly archipelago, including the deployment of necessary national defense facilities, is aimed at protecting China’s sovereignty and security.”
Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III said the Senate committee on foreign relations should get to the bottom of the controversy.
What’s really happening
“Yes, [the] Senate foreign relations committee should first find out what really is happening and then have a closed-door confidential briefing on how the DFA intends to handle what is happening on the ground [after this is confirmed],” Pimentel said in a message to reporters.
He said the committee chaired by Sen. Loren Legarda could begin its investigation upon the resumption of Congress on May 15.
In a text message from Bonn, Germany, where she was attending a climate change conference, Legarda said on Saturday that the Philippines should protest China’s deployment of missiles on its territory regardless of the country’s increasingly friendly ties with Beijing.
“We should protest the militarization of the contested areas, regardless of the perpetrator,” she said.
“The reported missile deployment by China in the contested areas in the West Philippine Sea should be met with grave concern,” she said, using the local name of the waters within the Philippines’ 370-kilometer exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea.
“Our authorities need to verify these reports soonest, and if proven true, there is no recourse but to protect our territorial and sovereign rights and interests,” Legarda said.
