China: Philippines 'hyping up' Ayungin issue

MANILA, Philippines - China accused the Philippines of scheming when it delivered goods to troops stationed at disputed Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal right before it submitted it filed its memorial or written argumen in the arbitration case before the United Nations.

China Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Monday that Manila is "hyping up" the issue on Ayungin, where Philippine Navy's BRP Sierra Madre has been grounded since 1999. Members of the Philippine Marines are manning the dilapidated ship as an outpost in Ayungin, which China also claims and calls Ren'ai Reef.

"I want to point out that the Philippines' arrangement of the reporting trip to the waters off the Ren'ai Reef just a day before its submission of the Memorial to the arbitral tribunal is a deliberately schemed activity with the purpose of further hyping up the issue of the Ren'ai Reef, building momentum for its promotion of the international arbitration and serving its attempt to illegally snatch the Ren'ai Reef which is China's territory," Hong said in a press conference.

Also read: China: US has no role in sea dispute

Hong also declared that China will never allow the Philippines to "seize the Ren'ai Reef in any form" and threatened to retaliate once it builds facilities in the maritime area.

"The Philippine side will have to take the consequences caused by its provocative actions," he said.

China has rejected the arbitration before the United Nations' International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea, slamming the Philippines' filing of an exhaustive, 10-volume memorial last Sunday.

Hong also said that the Philippine government's resupplying mission in the disputed waters last Saturday betrayed its "illegal occupation of China's territory."

"It is a political provocation by abusing international legal means," he said.

"The Philippines' provocation on the Ren'ai Reef shows once again that at the heart of the South China Sea disputes between China and the Philippines are the disputes on the sovereignty over islands and reefs, which have been excluded from arbitration procedures provided for under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)," Hong continued.

China has long demanded that the BRP Sierra Madre be removed by the Philippine government. The Department of Foreign Affairs, however, cited the lack of resources in failing to tow the grounded vessel.