Palace: Duterte to visit Pag-asa Island before term ends

MANILA, Philippines — After raising eyebrows for his uncompleted visit to Philippine Rise purportedly to assert the country’s sovereignty, President Duterte is likely to make a trip to Pag-asa Island in the West Philippine Sea for the same purpose before the end of his term in 2022, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said yesterday.

“Darating ang panahon na pupuntahan ni President ang Pag-asa Island (Time will come when the President will visit Pag-asa Island). The President’s visit to Pag-asa is an evidence of sovereignty,” Roque said.

“If he will not do it now, I guess he will go there before he ends his term. This will be not just to show the world our title over Kalayaan Islands but to also visit our soldiers and our fellow countrymen living there,” Roque said.

The Kalayaan municipality, which includes Pag-asa (Thitu) island, is 280 nautical miles northwest of Puerto Princesa, Palawan and 579 nautical miles southwest of Metro Manila. The island chain has been occupied for a long time by the Philippines.

The Philippines, China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Vietnam have overlapping claims in the Spratly Islands.

There is mounting pressure for the President to go to the West Philippine  Sea, particularly Panganiban or Mischief  Reef, after he fell short of his promise to visit Philippine Rise and cruise around on a jet ski in a symbolic gesture of asserting the country’s sovereignty over what is believed to be resource-rich waters.

Critics had maintained his much-publicized trip to the Philippine Rise was useless as no country is contesting the Philippines’ sovereignty over the undersea plateau off Aurora and Isabela.

He and his party actually reached only Casiguran Bay and only presidential son Sebastian Duterte and special assistant Bong Go briefly rode jet skis.

Pag-asa Island is the biggest of the nine Philippine military outposts in the Spratlys group and is 12 nautical miles from Zamora (Subi) Reef occupied by Chinese forces.

The Palace had declared many times that the President was not abandoning the country’s sovereignty over the West Philippine Sea.  But he made it clear he was not ready to antagonize China and risk starting a war with the Asian power.

During a visit to the Western Command headquarters in Puerto Princesa City in April 2017, Duterte ordered the Armed Forces to begin occupying uninhabited islands in the West Philippine Sea.

He had also declared readiness to personally raise the Philippine flag on Pag-asa Island and even joked about replacing the grounded BRP Sierra Madre at Ayungin Shoal with a luxury ship for the soldiers guarding the area.

AFP’s commitment

 Meanwhile, the military denied having chosen to remain silent in the face of China’s provocations in the West Philippine Sea, including its deployment of missiles to land features it has seized and fortified.

“Of course your Armed Forces is always aware and will not renege on its constitutional duties to protect our sovereignty and maintain our territorial areas,” Col. Edgard Arevalo, AFP spokesman said.

The Washington-based Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS) recently released satellite photos showing military aircraft on man-made islands at Kagitingan (Fiery Cross) Reef, Zamora (Subi) Reef and Panganiban (Mischief) Reef. 

Aerial monitoring also showed 15 Chinese warships deployed in the area on rotation basis.

“There are things we are doing that we cannot just announce in public because these are operational matters but to assure the public our Armed Forces will never renege on its constitutional mandate to protect and defend the integrity of our country,” Arevalo said.

“Despite the rising security concern, nothing has changed. Our  soldiers are still deployed in the KIG. They are being rotated on a regular basis and they are getting their supply regularly,” a security official who declined to be named said, referring to the Kalayaan Island Group. – With Jaime Laude, Ding Cervantes