MANILA: The Philippines today slammed an irresponsible Chinese state media report claiming a disputed reef in the South China Sea was under Beijings control, saying the status quo was unchanged.
The Sandy Cay reef lies near Thitu Island, or Pag-asa, where the Philippines stations troops and maintains a coast guard monitoring base.
Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said Saturday that the countrys coast guard had implemented maritime control over Tiexian Reef, part of Sandy Cay, in mid-April.
The Philippines and China have been engaged in months of confrontations over the South China Sea, which Beijing claims nearly in its entirety despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.
There is no truth whatsoever to the claim of the China coast guard that the (Sandy Cay sandbanks) have been seized, national security council spokesman Jonathan Malaya told a press conference today.
Its in the interest of the Peoples Republic of China to use the information space to intimidate and harass, he said, calling the Sandy Cay report a made-up story that had been irresponsible to disseminate.
CCTV on Saturday published a photograph of four coast guard officials posing with a national flag on the reefs white surface, in what the broadcaster described as a vow of sovereignty.
There do not appear to be any signs that China has permanently occupied or built a structure on the reef, which is a group of small sandbanks in the Spratly Islands.
Both the Philippine and Chinese coast guards have issued statements in the past 24 hours describing successful missions in which they landed on the reef to exercise their claims of sovereignty.
In recent months, Beijing and Manila have blamed each other for causing what they describe as the ecological degradation of several disputed landforms in the South China Sea.
The US and Philippine militaries are currently conducting joint exercises that Beijing has said constitute a threat to regional stability.
Chinese warships have been spotted in Philippine waters since those bilateral Balikatan exercises kicked off last week, with aircraft carrier Shandong reportedly coming within about 4km of northern Babuyan Island.