The structures, including the military facilities that China built on the West Philippine Sea, may end up with the Philippines once the “day of reckoning” comes, a lawmaker said Monday, adding the continuous building of such structures in the area should not be a cause for alarm.
Party-list Rep. Eric Yap of ACT-CIS, chairman of the House committee on appropriations, said the Chinese-built facilities could be transferred to the Philippines once the arbitral ruling was fully enforced.
“As an example, if we have a plot of land that is the subject of a dispute and one of the claimants has a big force that surrounds our land and they built structures on the land where he have a claim, once we win in court the structures they built will revert to us because we own the land,” Yap said.
“I am telling you, do not be afraid if they build structures because in the end, once we enforce our rights the day of reckoning will come and those structures will be ours).”
The government, he says is resorting to diplomatic means to deal with the territorial dispute in the West Philippine Sea., and that the government is not surrendering its claim over the disputed territories.
“There is nothing to be gained if we go to war and the President has not said anything about surrendering our rights at the West Philippine Sea,” Yap said.
He said “maintaining good diplomatic relationships with China and other neighboring countries with regard to the territorial dispute are important so that they could give priority to the Philippines if ever they find a working vaccine against COVID-19.”
Yap said President Rodrigo Duterte is finding the right time to enforce the arbitral ruling.
In July 2016, an international tribunal invalidated Beijing’s claim over the West Philippine Sea and upheld the Philippines’s claim to several land features in the area, some of which are now occupied by China.