Envoy sends warning ahead of summit
Comments seen as political strategy to deal with Beijing over South China Sea
Remarks by the Philippines’ US envoy on Manila needing to overcome inertia to defend its territory have been described by observers as a political strategy to deal with Chinese maritime aggression and warn against local pro-Beijing sentiment, ahead of a trilateral summit in Washington.
Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez made the comments on Tuesday, two days before Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr was set to hold talks at the White House with US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.
Romualdez said the Philippine government had been generally “accepting” of the situation in its own waters, referring to China’s aggression within the South China Sea. “We can’t continue to be like this. Some people have this wrong notion that we just sit back and nothing will happen to us. We may wake up one day, and we won’t have a country any more,” Romualdez warned.
“What President Marcos is doing is simply saying, ‘enough is enough’. We are going to talk to you seriously. We are not here because we want to have a conflict. We are not here because we are looking for a fight. We are the ones that are being aggressively bullied,” he added.
Manila is locked in an escalating territorial dispute with Beijing in the South China Sea.
On March 23, vessels from China’s coastguard and maritime militia impeded and fired water cannons at Philippine Coast Guard ships accompanying boats on a supply mission to Manila’s military outpost on the Second
Thomas Shoal, injuring three Filipino sailors.
Don McLain Gill, a geopolitical analyst and lecturer at the Department of International Studies of De La Salle University, said Marcos had from the beginning highlighted his administration had to be friends with China, but Beijing was “saying one thing and doing [another]”.
Romualdez said the government was finding ways to de-escalate the maritime tension, emphasising his side had already started a conversation with Beijing, but if the situation worsened, he warned that the United States would not back down on its word to support the Philippines.
“I am very comfortable with that because every single day that I am in Washington and every meeting that I have, it is a serious concern. I have never seen this kind of attention being given to this type of situation that we are in right now,” he added.
The Chinese embassy in Manila made no comments on the latest development.
Asked if the Marcos administration was serious in its foreign policies towards China or if its stance was only part of political strategy, Filipino military historian and defence analyst Jose Antonio Custodio said he perceived it as a mixed measure.
“There’s a local dimension when it comes to [Marcos’] pushback against China. Especially as his political ratings are low and next year is a midterm election. He has to do something against the challenge posed by the Beijing-sponsored [Rodrigo] Duterte camp,” said Custodio, also a member of the Consortium of Indo-Pacific Researchers.
‘Custodio, however, said the central government’s strong stance pertaining to the West Philippine Sea issue illustrated the multipronged threat of China’s external aggression against the Filipinos.
“The Dutertes are on record to be directly responsible for the weakening of Philippine responses to China during the Duterte administration while cozying up to Beijing,” he said.
“So one wonders if this is only a Philippine pushback against China but also has a subplot which is the marginalisation of the Dutertes as well.”
At the same time, Custodio viewed Romualdez’s comments against Chinese actions as a warning to pro-China personalities in the country. “That looks like a warning to the Duterte camp,” he said when asked if Romualdez’s latest comments reflected an alarmist Manila stance.
Former Philippine leader Duterte, who considered President Xi Jinping his close friend, allegedly made a “gentleman’s agreement” with Xi to maintain the status quo in the South China Sea while he was in office.
The former president’s spokesman, Harry Roque, said under the deal Manila would not construct or repair any installations within the disputed area but could deliver “food and water supplies” to Filipino troops stationed at the BRP Sierra Madre, a World War II navy ship grounded at the Second Thomas Shoal to reinforce Manila’s territorial claims over the surrounding area.
Marcos, in his first public pronouncement on Wednesday after the controversy came out last week, said he was “horrified” by the alleged deal.
“I am horrified at the idea that we have compromised through a secret agreement the territory, sovereignty, and sovereign rights of the Philippines. We don’t know anything about it; there is no documentation, there is no record,” he said, following a Bagong Pilipinas Town Hall Meeting held in Manila.
Manila would summon Chinese ambassador Huang Xilian to explain the details of the alleged deal, Marcos said, once he returned from his US trip.
Gill said at the heart of Marcos’ foreign policy was the country’s sovereignty and security rights based on international law.
“If such an agreement was actually made, then it will be a big provocation and challenge to our current strategy in the West Philippine Sea,” Gill said.
Meanwhile, left-wing group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan held a protest in Manila yesterday to denounce the trilateral summit.
Some people have this wrong notion that we just sit back and nothing will happen to us JOSE MANUEL ROMUALDEZ