The military’s highest-ranking official on Thursday proposed that the country also start building structures in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) considering China’s apparent disregard for the status quo agreement among states claiming parts of the disputed area. In Thursday’s virtual press briefing, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff Gen. Cirilito Sobejana said, “We are entertaining also the idea—of course, subject to the wisdom of the National Task Force (NTF) for the WPS—to build structures there like what China is doing.”“The reason we’re not building structures there is because there is an agreement that no new structures will be built but China has broken that agreement,” he told reporters. “That’s why we need to build structures now and, again, that is subject to the consideration of the NTF-WPS,” Sobejana said.

Andrade, J. I., & Santos, T. G. (2021, April 23). AFP chief pushes Pinoy structures in West PH Sea. Philippine Daily Inquirer, A3.