The Americans at the time discouraged the Philippines to avoid conflict with the Chinese government of Chiang Kai-shek, who was an ally of the United States.

[citation needed] Cloma wrote to Carlos Garcia, then Philippine Vice President and Foreign Minister, asserting that his claim was based on "discovery and occupation".

The "gift" was said to be a "present" to the Philippine commander for his birthday, and as a move by South Vietnamese forces to befriend all Filipino soldiers guarding the Spratlys.

After higher-ups of the Philippines were informed about the situation, they instructed the troops based in Parola and Pagasa to stay on red alert status.

It had been apparent that most of the officials (who treated the Vietnamese communists as a threat to the Philippine national security) wanted to attack Pugad to reclaim it.

However, after an intelligence report stated that the unified Vietnam had already built a huge concrete garrison within a few weeks, the officials dropped the plan and tried to resolve the issue diplomatically.

The Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia, along with other ASEAN countries who can serve as investors, were already drawing a plan on a wide exploitation of the Spratly group in the early 1980s when suddenly China became interested in the area.

In his essay contributed for TIME Asia in 1999, Professor Alex Magno of University of the Philippines pointed out that China is the main aggressor in the Spratly dispute.

[39] The Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking (JMSU) is a tripartite agreement between the Philippines, China and Vietnam to conduct seismic exploration in an area spanning 142,886 square kilometers west of Palawan, all of which are within Philippine territories[40] (as defined by EEZ of UNCLOS and does not necessarily mean as accepted by China and Vietnam).

A controversy broke out when Barry Wain, a researcher in the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, wrote an article in the January–February 2008 issue of the Hong-Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review saying that "it was largely a sellout on the part of the Philippines".

The bill is needed to be passed before the middle of 2009 to beat the deadline set by the United Nations for the measures defining countries' territorial claims.

A Philippine Navy ship, BRP Sierra Madre, which ran aground on Ayungin Reef in 1999, serves as a shelter and observation post for soldiers stationed here.

Fortunately for the engineering team, the marines did not carry out their plan as they suspected that the boat was crewed by Filipinos and that it was seeking refuge because of the storm.

[70] After the signing of the Code of Conduct between claimant nations in November 2002, the Philippines have maintained a total of 450 soldiers stationed in all of the features it occupies.

After the collapse of the USSR and the departure of United States forces from the Philippines in 1991, most claimants, especially China, have aggressively taken actions occupying features and building more structures.

[74] In 2001, two years after China's building of additional structures in Mischief Reef that caused a news panic in Manila, the Visiting Forces Agreement was ratified by both United States and the Philippines.

Instead, the US limited itself in continuously supporting the Philippine defense programs with military and intelligence aid and training, and a variety of diplomatic measures aimed at sending a "strong message" to Beijing.

However, the Philippines only removed BRP Benquet from Scarborough Shoal shortly before the official visit of Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji to Manila.

[33] To make some additions to their supplies which are provided by a naval ship which visits once a month, the settlers also raise pigs, goats and chickens and plant some crops in an allotted space.

Pagasa's airstrip can accommodate Philippine Air Force (PAF) fighter jets and even the huge C-130 cargo planes.

And in 2001, civilian Filipinos who first settled on the island had needed to make numerous boat trips between the coast and the ship to move their belongings and properties.

An AFP military chief said that the army together with its navy would help bring more tourists to the white sands and pristine waters of Pagasa Island starting April 2008.

[2] On June 9, 2020, the Department of National Defense led the inauguration of a beaching ramp on Pag-asa Island (Thitu) which was finally completed after three years.

[85] Also, Department of Transportation (DOTR) confirmed that the new seaport and sheltered port in the Thithu island is completed and ready to operate by June 12.

It is extracting natural gas from the Camago-Malampaya oil leg (CMOL) (or simply Malampaya Field), located 80 kilometres (50 mi) west of northern Palawan.

[98] The Malapaya Project began the Philippines' natural gas industry and enabled the supply of at least 2,700 megawatts of power for a period of at least 20 years starting 2002.

It is also believed to be the deepest horizontal subsea well test undertaken in the world at a depth of about 850 m.[97] The upstream component of the US$4.5 billion Malampaya gas-to-power project was jointly developed by Shell Philippines Exploration B.V. (SPEX), ChevronTexaco and PNOC EC.

In March 2011, two Chinese vessels chased off the Veritas Voyager, a survey ship hired by Forum Energy—a UK-based company with a portfolio of projects in the Philippines.

The Philippines, in general, is tolerant in allowing Chinese vessels to fish in disputed areas including Scarborough Shoal and waters in the vicinity of Philippine-occupied Spratly islands.

Within these areas Chinese fishing vessels normally fly a Philippine flag to avoid suspicion, or try to escape into Malaysian or Indonesian waters when hailed to elude arrest.