A USA administration official questioned the Philippine’s claim, telling AFP the United States had not detected any unusual activity at Scarborough Shoal.
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Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Sunday said the Air Force planes found four Chinese Coast Guard ships, one of which guarded the entrance to the shoal, and six other ships colored blue in different hues.
The leaders were due to meet Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday, although it was unclear if the row over the South China Sea would be openly addressed.
The 11 Chinese ships deployed around the northern edge of the shoal include four Chinese maritime security ships and seven blue-hulled ships that could be either fishing-related ships or possibly construction and dredging vessels.
But the presence of several Chinese vessels on Scarborough Shoal, which lies 123 miles off Subic in Zambales is a precursor to the possible building of structures in the area, according to Defense department spokesman Arsenio Andolong.
The Philippines in July won the arbitration case it filed before the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which rejected China’s claims over most of the South China Sea, including the areas within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
The United States has reacted to that build-up by sailing warships close to the new islands, and sending warplanes over them.
But leaders of the 10-country Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) at a summit in Vientiane did not press Beijing to comply with an global arbitration court ruling that rejected Beijing’s claims to nearly the entire sea.
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte wants to negotiate with Beijing, and has pledged not to rock the boat by discussing the ruling at this week’s ASEAN and East Asia Summits in Laos.
The East Asia Summit draft statement was less forceful than the statement that ASEAN leaders issued on Wednesday to express concern over China’s island-building.
On July 12, an worldwide arbitration tribunal ruled against China’s claims, saying they were illegal.
Those hopes rest largely on a meeting Monday between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, with Xi telling Abe that it was time to “put aside disruptions” and bring ties “back on the normal track”, according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency.
The agreement marks another step in attempts by Japan and other powers to check China’s growing maritime ambitions by creating a chain of regional allies committed to the status quo and the “rule of law” at sea.
“It will help us in the movements of the Philippine Coast Guard like patrol missions”, Balilo added.
“It all springs from the fact that the relationship between the Philippines and the United States is firm, very strong”, Philippines’ foreign minister, Perfecto Yasay, said of their meeting.
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“All these Asean meetings will be held here in the Philippines next year”. The base also would bolster Chinese “anti-access, area-denial” capabilities created to force the USA military out of the region.
