China ready to build on Philippine shoal, says Philippine defence secretary

Philippine Defence Secretary Voltaire Gazmin has accused China of preparing to build a structure on an uninhabited group of reefs within its territory.

The Philippine armed forces took aerial photographs of three Chinese coastguard ships and about 30 concrete blocks on the Scarborough Shoal, which China calls Huangyan Island, on August 31, Defence department spokesman Peter Galvez said.

Briefing parliament about the incident, Gazmin said the blocks were a "prelude to construction" and added that the move contravenes a 2002 declaration between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to refrain from occupying land in the South China Sea.

"First rocks, then a piledriver, then a foundation," Gazmin said after his testimony. "When you get back again, if you don't survey, there will be a garrison."

The accusation adds to tensions days after President Benigno Aquino rejected conditions China set for him to attend a trade fair. The Philippines, a US treaty ally, lacks the military force to deter China from controlling disputed waters that may contain oil and gas reserves.

The Philippines asked the UN in January to rule on its maritime disputes with China, a move that leaders in Beijing oppose.