When the Philippines Armed Forces unable to patrol due to monsoon season, China slowly annexed the reef by building a structure and insisting its for their fisherman use. The Philippine Government strongly react the structure creation but later on the two sides settle amicably. But in 1998 (1997 Asian Financial Crisis), China resume the construction of the reef. In 2015, an astonishing reclamation surprise to us, which the Philippine Government unable to stop (More talk than action).
Mischief Reef Facts
- Well inside the 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone
- 129 nautical miles from Palawan.
- 599 nautical miles away from Chinese territory
- Controlled by the Philippines until China build structure in 1995
All the incident might not happen if the Philippine Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard are properly equipped with modern equipment. It can't deny that the total budget of PH Defense is good for basic needs (such as salary & office maintenance). But in adding war equipment and maintenance cost of existing ordnance, nothing! There is also a modernization law (started in 1995 and revised during the Pres. Aquino's term), a modernization that today's bidding takes 3-6 years to approve. While the Philippine Islands slowly eats up by our giant neighbor.
China is aggressive because she know we have nothing to counter their actions. Look at Japan, maybe if they have i'll equipped armed forces, the Senkaku Islands are now belong to Chinese territory.
A Declaration of Code of conduct between ASEAN-China
http://www.asean.org/asean/external-relations/china/item/declaration-on-the-conduct-of-parties-in-the-south-china-sea
Mischief Reef (Kagitingan Reef) construction activities as of June 2015
http://amti.csis.org/mischief-reef-tracker/
http://amti.csis.org/diplomacy-changes-construction-continues-new-images-of-mischief-and-subi-reefs/
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