Manila--Philippine military and commercial aircraft will keep flying over disputed areas in the South China Sea despite Chinese warnings over the airspace, President Benigno Aquino said on Monday.
"We will still fly the routes that we fly based on the international law from the various conventions we entered into," Aquino told reporters when asked whether the Philippines accepted China's position.
The Chinese military last week ordered a US Navy P-8 Poseidon surveillance plane away from airspace above the disputed Spratly islands in the South China Sea.
The Chinese foreign ministry later insisted it had sovereign rights to those waters, maritime features and the airspace above.
China claims nearly all of the South China Sea, even waters approaching the coasts of the Philippines and other Asian neighbours.
In recent years it has caused alarm with increasingly aggressive actions to assert its claims.
It is undertaking giant land reclamation works in the Spratlys, located between the Vietnam and the Philippines, to turn reefs into islands that can host airstrips and other military facilities.
The Spratlys, about a thousand kilometres (620 miles) from the nearest major Chinese landmass, are one of the biggest and most strategically important archipelagos in the sea.
Aquino said the Philippines would not give up its territory to China, even as he acknowledged major differences in the capabilities of their militaries.
AFP
