Manila: The Philippines has decided to leave the issue of China’s alleged build-up of military-grade weapons’ systems on three out of seven reefs and rocks it has enhanced into artificial islands in the South China Sea to superpowers such as the US, Japan, and the European Union to sort out.

“There is nothing that we can do about that [China’s move] now, whether or not it is being done for purposes of further militarising these facilities that they have put up. We cannot stop China at this point in time and say, ‘Do not put that up’, we will continue to pursue peaceful means at which all of these can be prevented,” Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay said in a press briefing in Singapore, the transcript of which reached his Manila office late on Friday.

“For the Philippines, we have our bilateral engagements with China. We want to make sure that there will be no further actions that will heighten the tensions between the two countries, particularly in the Scarborough Shoal (off the South China Sea). Our efforts had paid off. As you can see, our fishermen are allowed to ... not allowed, but [our] fishermen now have free access, insofar as Scarborough Shoal is concerned,” said Yasay.

“We have placed this [complaint about China’s weapons enhancement] at the back burner without compromising our rights as declared by the arbitral tribunal insofar its decision of July 12, 2016, is concerned,” said Yasay, adding this foreign policy is necessary for confidence building to help the Philippines and China find peaceful means to resolve the sea dispute.

The Hague-based Permanent Court Arbitration said that China should let the Scarborough Shoal, 124km west of Philippines’ central Luzon, which it took over in 2012, be used as a common fishing ground for other claimants in the South China Sea. The court also said that China’s claim of the entire South China Sea, its enhancement of rocks and reefs there were illegal.

The Philippines would continue to engage China “insofar as the other aspects of our relationship is concerned — trade, investment, people-to-people contact, cooperation, infrastructure development and other such assistance that will have no strings attached,” said Yasay.

But Philippine Defence Minister Delfin Lorenzana added, “It is a big concern for us and the international community who use the South China Sea lanes for trade. It would mean that the Chinese are militarising the area, which is not good.”

Satellite images in November showed that China has built on Fiery Cross, Mischief reef and Subi Reef hexagonal structures — they appear like large anti-aircraft guns and close-in weapons system, the US-based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) said.

In response, China’s foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in Beijing on December 15 the South China Sea islands were undeniably part of China’s “inherent territory”. “To conduct construction on China’s own territory and deploy necessary national defence facilities is quite normal ….it had “nothing to do with militarisation,” Geng was quoted as adding.

The construction was primarily for civilian use, while the military installations were necessary for “self-defence”, China’s defence ministry posted on its Weibo account, adding,

“If someone were flexing his muscles outside your door, wouldn’t you get a slingshot ready?”

The US has undertaken freedom of navigation patrols with navy ships and planes near the enhanced islands off the South China Sea.

China, Taiwan, and Vietnam claim the whole of the South China Sea. Brunei, Malaysia, and the Philippines claim their respective 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zones in the South China Sea, a provision of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.