‘Phl stopped work on Pagasa airstrip’Christina Mendez (The Philippine Star) - October 4, 2014 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - There is a Palace-ordered freeze in infrastructure work – including repairs – on military and air facilities on Pagasa Island, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said yesterday.
The freeze, Gazmin told the Senate finance subcommittee, was meant to keep the Philippines on a “moral high ground” in its arbitration case against China regarding the latter’s disputing Manila’s sovereignty over Pagasa and other land forms in the West Philippine Sea.
Gazmin was responding to queries from Sen. Loren Legarda on how work to improve the country’s defense capabilities in disputed islands is faring.
“We got the specific instructions from the President to serve the status quo as stated by the legal opinion of attorney Batino,” the defense secretary said, referring to Defense Undersecretary Pio Lorenzo Batino.
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