SOLON PUSHES FOR THE IMMEDIATE NEUTRALIZATION OF INCOMING
CHINESE BASES WITHIN THE PHILIPPINE EEZ PRESS RELEASE March 12, 2015 Batasan Hills, Quezon City Former Marine Captain and now MAGDALO Party-List Representative Gary Alejano has called for the immediate neutralization of Chinese reclamation projects within the Philippine Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) saying that if the projects are finished, we might wake up next year with significant parts of our maritime territory already fully occupied and unredeemable because Chinese air and naval bases have already been established near our coastlines. He said that we dont want a situation where we will be strangers to our own terrains all because we just stood watching China expand within our territories. In recent months, China has ramped up construction on reefs and islets, deployed more patrol vessels within the Philippines EEZ in the West Philippine Sea. While it is true that maximum restraint must be observed whenever practicable and that the legal route is the most durable approach to defending our sovereignty, Cong. Gary believes that the present circumstances confronting us warrant a more aggressive and definitive posture by increasing and reinforcing our military presence and using available technologies in areas which China have stealthily-encroached upon. He also noted that the case before the arbitral tribunal which the Philippines has filed, will take three to four years to be decided. We must show China that we are not mere push overs in our own territory. We must show them that we are ready to die for what believe is rightfully ours. These ongoing Chinese constructions will soon be equipped with missiles and fighter planes aimed at us and can easily destroy our existing military structures. Why wait for China to lay down all their artilleries and bombs at our own doorsteps which serve no other purpose but to threaten or destroy us when they deem it necessary, Cong. Gary said. Our presently positioned warships like the BRP Sierra Madre in the Ayungin Shoal, if we may still call it a warship, are without a doubt, an insufficient defense structure. We dont even know what is going on in these areas right now. We need to send and station more naval vessels and fly more frequently over these areas to monitor and prevent, or if not prevent, at least make it difficult for China to continue building structures. Our mutual defense agreement with the US may be used for this purpose, he added. xxx