MANILA, Philippines — China has created new artificial islets in two more reefs in the disputed South China Sea, which the Philippine military fears is meant to choke off its access to Ayungin shoal, where a crumbling Philippine Navy ship is beached.
In an interview, former Air Force officer Rep. Francisco Acedillo, now partylist representative of the Magdalo party, showed the latest maritime surveillance photos revealed how China’s land reclamation is expanding to cover all the seven reefs it occupies.
The latest reclamation work is being done on Mischief and Subi reefs, known to the Philippines as Panganiban and Zamora, which are fast catching up with the five other reefs where China had done reclamation work early last year.
Acedillo branded this move as “graver danger to the country’s national security.”