China has further expanded its militarization in Subi (Zamora) Reef, located near Pagasa Island in the West Philippine Sea, a navy official said on Tuesday.
Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, navy spokesperson for the WPS, said China has been constructing additional military structures in the Subi Reef—a low-tide elevation located in the Spratly Islands.
“There are structures being built, there are constructions, there are heavy equipment on Subi reef right now,” Trinidad told reporters in a press conference at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City.
The navy official lamented China's expansion of its functional military bases at the reef, where they eventually started a reclamation activity.
As early as 2012, China conducted massive reclamation activities in the Subi Reef, covering an estimated 3,000 hectares of the area.
“They have already militarized the South China Sea, from the early 1990s when they started putting up fishermen shelters and then it was mentioned by the narrative of the Chinese Communist Party that these are now for marine scientific research and then they started their reclamation activities in 2011, 2012, 2013,” he explained.
“Then, they started stationing military grade equipment; they started putting up military communications on these islands; they landed the first military aircraft,” he added.
According to Trinidad, China continued to expand its functional military bases in the area.
He noted these expanded military bases have become harbor facilities for vessels being operated by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy, China Coast Guard, and Chinese Maritime Militia.
“They have militarized the South China Sea,” he said.
“We monitored the presence of construction vehicles, heavy equipment vehicles, the putting up of more structures on Subi reef.”
Trinidad, however, noted the reef is still outside the territorial waters of the Philippines.
“Suffice it to say, the Arbitral Ruling of 2016 has already mentioned that all these manmade islands, man-made features would not generate any maritime entitlements,” he pointed out.
Subi Reef is located outside the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone but within its continental shelf.
Also, it is located outside the 12 nautical miles territorial sea of the 37-hectare Pagasa (Thitu) Island—the largest island occupied by the Philippines in the Spratlys.