Philippines will not stop air patrols over disputed South China Sea

MANILA, Aug 28 (dpa): The Philippines has announced that that it will not stop air patrols over the disputed South China Sea despite Beijing’s calls for it to halt such "illegal provocations."

Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin said China was "free to say" what it wants over the patrols, but it will not affect Manila’s actions.

"We’re going to continue our patrol because it’s ours," he said in an interview with television cable news channel ANC.

"They can call it illegal provocations, you can’t change their minds," he added. "They already lost the arbitral award, they wouldn’t accept it... It’s a free world."

Locsin was referring to a 2016 decision by an international tribunal, which ruled that Beijing has no legal or historic basis to its claim to the entire South China Sea.

China last week criticised the Philippines for sending military aircraft in the South China Sea as an infringement of its sovereignty and security.

"China urges the Philippine side to immediately stop illegal provocations," Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said.

Zhao made the call after the Philippines filed a protest against the Chinese coast guard’s confiscation of fishing devices from Scarborough Shoal in May.

Scarborough Shoal - also known to the Chinese as Huangyan Dao or Democracy Reef - is located 230 kilometres from the Philippines' north-western coast.

The shoal was the site of a stand-off between Philippine and Chinese government ships in April 2012, which promoted Manila to file the tribunal case that was decided in 2016. - dpa