Palace: Phl not giving up territory
As the country marked the second anniversary yesterday of its legal victory over China in an international court over maritime claims, Malacañang vowed to continue asserting the country’s sovereignty and dared critics to challenge its handling of the issue before the courts.
China is claiming about 90 percent of the resource-rich South China Sea and West Philippine Sea, but its claim was invalidated by a UN-backed arbitral tribunal based in The Hague in 2016.
The previous Aquino administration filed the case in 2013 to challenge China’s “exaggerated” and “excessive” claim. Beijing vowed not to comply with the ruling, which affirmed the Philippines’ maritime entitlements.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said allegations that President Duterte has given up on the Philippines’ maritime claims are “farthest from the truth.”
“It is the second anniversary of our win in the arbitration before the Permanent Court of
Arbitration, and we assure the public that… we will continue to assert what is ours while we move on with our bilateral relations with China,” Roque said at a press briefing yesterday.
“The President has repeatedly said we would continue to stand by our claims but until the issue is not resolved, we will let our relationship with China move forward in other fields, especially in the economy,” he added.
Duterte had repeatedly said he would not declare war with China as doing so would lead to a “massacre” of Filipino soldiers. He had even joked about wanting the Philippines to become a province of China.
“We continue to assert our sovereignty and sovereign rights. But we have decided to move on to issues which are non-controversial because we know that the final resolution, particularly on the issues of sovereignty on the disputed islands, will take many, many, many years to resolve since this was not a subject of the arbitral ruling that we won two years ago,” Roque said.
“It is a free country, they can file it. And we will meet them in court,” Roque said in reaction to a statement from former solicitor-general Florin Hilbay claiming groups were planning to file a case with the Supreme Court to compel the Department of Foreign Affairs to disclose its diplomatic actions against China’s military buildup in the South China Sea.
Roque said he had already revealed details of some of the government’s diplomatic actions on the maritime row at his previous press briefings.
“I have said that we are discussing this in the bilateral mechanism that we have in China, which also has the effect of a protest. The President has publicly protested in some instances and I know of formal protests filed directly with the embassy upon expressed direction of the President,” the spokesman said.
“So we have said all this; we are not hiding what we have been doing to protect our sovereignty and sovereign rights in the disputed areas of the West Philippine Sea,” he added.
“He (Hilbay) should file impeachment if he wants, he’s welcome; it’s a free country,” Roque said.
He also lambasted former foreign affairs secretary Albert del Rosario for calling the Philippines a “willing victim” of China’s provocations.
“I don’t know what makes him (Del Rosario) an authority to give that view... I’m not sure what they mean by enforcing an arbitral decision, because an arbitral decision is binding on parties thereto. It clearly underscores the fact that some individuals, including the former secretary of foreign affairs, does not fully comprehend the nature of arbitration,” Roque said.
He insisted that the Philippines is benefiting from Duterte’s friendship with China.
“When there are issues, we dialogue as friends, not argue as adversaries. All this time, we are building up our capabilities to eventually assert our sovereign rights and interests. That is the policy that works for our nation,” he added.