Manila: The Philippines is now caught between two contending forces, China and the United States, because of the South China Sea territorial dispute, a leftist leader said during a protest rally held in front of the Chinese Embassy in Makati City.

“We are holding this rally to clarify that the Philippines should be careful. We have allowed our country to be in the middle of two contending threats [China and the US] — because of the overlapping claims in the South China Sea,” Renato Reyes, secretary-general of Bayan, told Gulf News on Tuesday.

“First, we are against China, which does not recognise the sovereignty of the Philippines and its exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea — the West Philippine Sea,” Reyes said, adding, “The best way to stand up against China or any foreign aggressor is for the Philippines to be truly independent, engage in a programme of national industrialisation, and to build its own economic capacity and security.”

Although Bayan is leftist, it has espoused an issue that is “not about ideology but about Philippine sovereignty,” explained Reyes

He criticised China’s takeover of several shoals near the country’s western seaboard — the Mischief Shoal near Palawan in 1995 and the Scarborough Shoal near northern Luzon in 2012.

China has been trying to evict a Philippine Navy contingent deployed in a rusty ship that ran aground near the Second Thomas Shoal, which has served as an outpost of the Philippine government — to protect the eight-island chain claimed by the Philippines in the Spratly Archipelago off the South China Sea.

As a result, the Philippine government is pressured to forge an enhanced defence agreement with the US ahead of the visit of US President Barack Obama, said Reyes.

“The proposed agreement would benefit the US government. It would also take away the country’s sovereignty with the agreement’s proposed basing of US troops inside Philippine facilities,” said Reyes.

The Philippine Senate rejected in 1990 a US-proposed extension of the now defunct US-Philippine Military Bases Agreement (MBA), the basis of US presence in the Philippines which ended in 1991.

It resulted in the dismantling of the former US Subic Naval Base in Olongapo, Zambales and the US Clark Air Base in Angeles, Pampanga. They were two of US’s largest overseas war facilities.

Citing Bayan’s choice on the difficult issue being faced by the Philippines today, Reyes said, “My group supports the government’s move to elevate the case against China before the United Nations.”

“Bayan condemns China’s militarisation of the South China Sea,” Reyes added.

China, Taiwan, and Vietnam claim the whole of the South China Sea based on their historical rights.

Brunei, Malaysia, and the Philippines claim some parts of the Spratly Archipelago based on the United Convention on the law of the Sea that grants countries 200 nautical miles exclusive economic zones starting from their shores.