MANILA, Philippines -- The Philippine Air Force on Wednesday reported that one of its planes had sighted a new structure in a Vietnam-claimed island in the disputed Spratly chain.

Col. Jose Tony Villarete, commander of the Palawan-based 570th Composite Tactical Wing, said a March 19 PAF reconnaissance flight over the disputed islands showed new construction on Pugad island, one of 21 islands being claimed by Vietnam.

“It is new but it is not military ... It is civilian. It looks like a residential building, or for whatever civilian use. That island is occupied by fishermen,” Villarete said Wednesday at the close of a PAF briefing on the Spratlys.

Villarete said the island is some 40 nautical miles northwest of Pag-asa island, one of the nine Spratly islands claimed by the Philippines, which is now a municipality of Palawan province.

No violation

PAF officials said the new construction was not in violation of any agreement as Pugad island is already occupied by Vietnam.

“I don’t see anything alarming there,” he said. The new construction was nowhere like the controversial military settlement that China built on Mischief Reef in 1995, he said.

China’s occupation of Mischief Reef, which is part of the Philippine-claimed Kalayaan island group, caused a diplomatic uproar among claimants to the resource-rich Spratly chain which is being claimed in whole or partly by China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan and the Philippines.

It prompted the parties to draw up a code of conduct that barred any new occupation of the disputed islands and allowed navigation and overflights for all claimant countries.

Baselines compromised

Meanwhile, Cebu City Rep. Antonio Cuenco, chair of the House committee on foreign affairs, said he has thought of a way to solve the executive-legislative impasse over House Bill 3216, the measure seeking to define the country’s archipelagic baselines.

Cuenco said Congress could adopt a law that will only enclose within its archipelagic baselines those islands in the Kalayaan group that are actually occupied by the Philippines.

Cuenco said this may be an option that the executive branch and Congress might want to consider in the wake of the disagreement between the executive and the House on how the baselines bill should be worded.

“We will include in our baselines only around nine islands that are occupied by Filipino communities. And of course, Scarborough Shoal because it is quite near [our main archipelago],” Cuenco said.

The House has passed on second reading HB 3216 that proposes baselines that enclose the entire Philippine archipelago and stretch to the west to include as well the Kalayaan group and Scarborough Shoal off Zambales.

The baselines bill now pending in the Senate is substantially the same as the House version.

Malacañang has asked the House to reconsider passing the HB 3216, citing the position of its Commission on Maritime and Ocean Affairs that the Philippines might have to go to war to assert its sovereignty or surrender territory within the baselines since some of the islands are already occupied by China, Vietnam and other claimants.