HONOLULU, Hawaii (via PLDT) -- President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III has disclosed that a Taiwan representative categorically denied to him during the 19th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders Meeting that it might deploy missiles in the disputed territory in West Philippine Sea.

President Aquino said Lian Cheng, the honorary chairman of the Kumintang party or the ruling political party in Taiwan, clarified to him that there was no such plan that may further intensify the conflict in the tension-gripped Spratly Islands.

“They stated categorically that they do not know of any such missiles being deployed. Ang sabi nila, as far as they know there is no such plan,” President Aquino said during a coffee talk with Manila-based journalists at Hilton Hotel here late Saturday night (early Sunday evening in Manila).

President Aquino said they asked the Taiwan official after news reports came out last month that missiles might be deployed in the disputed islands.

“Ang pagkakaintindi ko ay wala silang interes na gagawin iyon (deploy missiles),” he said. “Iyong parang ang dating sa amin -- kasi ang binanggit natin sa kanila kapag nag-introduce kayo ng more sophisticated or more weapons into a weapon-free zone, ay magtataas lang lalo ang tensions. And they said wala sa interes nila.”

Like the Philippines, Taiwan is also one of the claimants in the oil-rich Spratly Islands.

Other claimant-countries of the disputed Spratly Islands are China, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei.

It will be recalled that a Taiwanese report quoted its defense minister, Kao Hua-chu, that their Coast Guard units deployed on Itu Aba island in the Spratlys now need the Tien Chien I missiles in the area, apparently replacing its 1980s-era Chaparral missiles.