After the Philippines won an initial victory in the United Nations Court of Permanent Arbitration against China. Lawmakers former policemen and soldiers is asking the government to send our own military to sail near China’s fake island in the West Philippine Sea to exercise the right of everyone to freedom of navigation like the US did, according to ABS CBN report.
The US deployment should encourage the Philippines to do the same and exercise its freedom in the West Philippine Sea as international waters, according to Representative Samuel Pagdilao. He and his group are also willing to join and board in the exploration, he added.
US admiral Harris said Tuesday, according to prepared remarks, “International seas and airspace belong to everyone and are not the dominion of any single nation”. “Our military will continue to fly, sail, and operate whenever and wherever international law allows. The South China Sea is not - and will not - be an exception.”
Harris has frequently condemned China’s illegal territorial expansion in the South China Sea. In March, he said China would make “a great wall of sand” and cause genuine worry about militarizing reefs and artificial islands in an area of competing for territorial claims by other countries.
The USS Lassen DDG-82 went through a 12-mile limit around Subi Reef in the Spratly Islands archipelago. The reef is one of seven that China has falsely strengthened to bolster its case on the archipelago and the sea around it.
