The Philippines expects China to try to build on the Scarborough Shoal, the country's Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said on Tuesday, a move he said would be "unacceptable" in the flash-point waterway. In an interview with Agence France Presse, Lorenzana said he believed China would eventually reclaim the Shoal, which sits just 230 kilometers from mainland Luzon. Beijing has already built a number of islets and reefs in the South China Sea, installing military facilities on several of them. Analysts say that similar in- stallations on Scarborough Shoal, also known as the Panatag Shoal, could give China effective military control over the disputed waterway, something the United States had said it was not prepared to accept.

PH fears China will build island on Panatag Shoal. (2017, February 8). Philippine Daily Inquirer, p. A3.