PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr., has ordered an investigation into claims by the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) that sand from the Philippines’ coastal areas is being used for reclamation projects in disputed areas of the South China Sea (SCS), the presidential palace said on Wednesday.

“After receiving information regarding the incident, the President ordered a thorough investigation,” Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary Clarissa A. Castro told a news briefing in Filipino on Wednesday. “Once a final investigation or conclusion is reached, appropriate action will be taken immediately.”

If quarrying in coastal areas for reclamation projects is confirmed, Ms. Castro said those found responsible would be held accountable.

NICA Deputy Director Francisco Ashley L. Acedillo earlier this week told the Senate Special Committee on Philippine Maritime and Admiralty Zones there are dredging activities in various areas of the country.

“These include the extraction of sand from several of our municipalities,” he said in Filipino. “There were earlier reports that sand taken directly from our own coastal areas was being used as landfill, reportedly even in some of our disputed territories.”

China claims more than 80% of the South China Sea, where it has reclaimed land and built military runways and lighthouses.

Its island-building activities have worsened tensions with nations like the Philippines and Vietnam, which have competing claims to features in the sea.

Josue Raphael J. Cortez, a diplomacy lecturer at De La Salle-College of St. Benilde, said NICA’s findings were “alarming and enlightening.”

“This is because we cannot fully uphold our sole rights over the disputed territories if a whole-of-society approach is not put into practice,” he said in a Facebook Messenger chat. “Faulty governance may be the root cause of such actions from external stakeholders, putting their best interests over the security of the nation as a whole.”

He said China is known for “debt trap diplomacy” and for attracting countries with the benefits it offers.

“It would not be surprising if some municipalities have fallen victim to this Chinese strategy,” he added.

If the investigation confirms that certain local government units were cooperating with foreign entities, particularly China, stringent measures must be implemented, he said.

“If this is not deterred, then this could be the impetus for further covert actions by China by using some local government units as intelligence provider hotspots in exchange for sourcing products that they promise to purchase at a higher rate.”

Tensions between the Philippines and China have worsened in the past year as Beijing continues to assert its sweeping claim that covers maritime features disputed by Manila.

China claims more than 80% of the maritime area based on a 1940s map, which a United Nations-backed arbitration court voided in 2016 for being illegal.

Chinese and Philippine ship activities near Scarborough Shoal spiked in the past year, with China’s coast guard gradually pushing its perimeter around the disputed shoal eastward, nearing the Philippines’ main island of Luzon, maritime transparency group SeaLight said this week.

SeaLight’s monitoring detected 1.5 million Chinese ship identification pings around the shoal, up from 724,000 a year ago, while with Philippine activity surged fourfold to 200,000, Anna van Amerongen, SeaLight Tech Advisory Group director, told an online maritime forum.   

“The perimeter around Scarborough Shoal has increased and became much more of a hotbed of activity,” she said. 

Chinese ships have been preventing Philippine Coast Guard vessels from getting within 32 kilometers of the shoal since May 2024, she added.   

The shoal is 240 kilometers west of Luzon and is about 900 kilometers from Hainan, the nearest major Chinese landmass.

In 2013, the Philippines took the dispute over Scarborough Shoal to a United Nations-backed tribunal, which ruled in 2016 that China had interfered with Filipino fishermen’s rights to access the area. Beijing has since deployed a fleet of coast guard vessels to enforce its claim despite the ruling.

Manila is monitoring the situation at Scarborough Shoal and is trying to assert sovereignty over the disputed feature by boosting its presence despite Chinese pushback, National Security Council Assistant Director-General Jonathan E. Malaya told the forum. — Chloe Mari A. Hufana