The Philippines urged China on Wednesday to withdraw its "platform and structures" from Scarborough Shoal or Bajo de Masinloc (BDM) and honor its "obligation under the international law".

In a press conference of the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea, Assistant Foreign Affairs Secretary Rogelio Villanueva Jr. stressed that "only the Philippines has the right to place or construct structures and conduct activities in the Bajo de Masinloc."

"The continued presence of the semi-permanent floating platform without consent or authorization is not only a violation of the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the Philippines, but is also inconsistent with international law, particularly the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, or UNCLOS, and the 2016 award in the South China Sea arbitration, their presence is a clear violation of China's commitments under the 2002 Declaration of Conduct of Parties in the in the South China Sea," he said.

"We therefore urge China to withdraw and remove the platform structures from Bago de Masinloc, cease similar actions that violate Philippine sovereignty and sovereign rights in and within the vicinity of Bajo de Masinloc and comply with its obligations under international law, particularly UNCLOS and the 2016 award in the South China Sea arbitration," he added.

Rear Admiral Jay Tarriela, Philippine Coast Guard spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea, said the floating platform was first monitored thru a satellite imagery on May 25 and was confirmed following a maritime domain awareness flight conducted by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) on May 26.

Aside from the floating platform that was initially reported by the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the presence of "unidentified floating object like a container drum", additional buoys, and "possible antenna structures" were also sighted within the shoal since May 31.

"If we were going to look at the chronological order of the events we can assume that the vessel that brought them there are actually Chinese research vessels and until now as we speak there are still two Chinese research vessels that we are still monitoring inside BDM," said Tarriela.

"We can also say that they are probably conducting illegal marine scientific research in BDM and that platform is also being used by those marine scientists," he added.

Amid the developments, AFP spokesman for the West Philippine Sea, retired Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad assures that the "AFP has the contingency plan in place in any situation."

"On the side of the AFP, Yes our patrols will continue we have been engaging our partners and allies, our like minded nations at the same time the modernization program is on track, so from the lens of defense and security we are doing what we can in order to perform our mandate and that include preventing Bajo de Masinloc from falling again or be developed again into another man made island," he said.

Bajo de Masinloc, which is within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines, is just 119.65 nautical miles away from Palauig, Zambales. The shoal is around 500 nautical miles away from Hainan, China. Robina Asido/PHS