Immediate solution to maritime row urged
President Aquino yesterday said there is a need to fast-track solution to the territorial dispute in the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea). “Uncertainty breeds instability. Instability does not promote prosperity. Therefore, let us resolve with certainty the issues before us: Who is entitled to what and what is each one’s obligations relative to this entitlements and having resolved that, then we can proceed to improve all of our relations because there is certainty in how we are supposed to deal with each other,” Aquino said at the open forum of Publish Asia 2016 at the Manila Hotel.
The President said the territorial dispute has affected even the ordinary fishermen who have been making a living from this body of water that are now the subject of the territorial dispute.
“This situation has called upon us to devote a lot more resources than previously. Also, it has necessitated us to have this as a priority as far as foreign policy is concerned because it does significantly impact our own developmental efforts,” Aquino said.
“It does impact currently the lives of our fisherfolk who have been fishing in these waters for eons. It does impact the economies to which these fisherfolk of ours are engaged in,” he said.
“Hence, there is that need to finally resolve this matter or, at least, accelerate the process of resolving this matter to the benefit of all parties concerned,” he added.
The President said that on the part of the Philippines, the country has been true to its word in pushing for a rules-based approach on the territorial dispute in the South China Sea.
“We believe we have been true to our word of looking for a rules-based response to resettling this matter that has been festering for several decades,” he said.
President Aquino further said that instability and uncertainty does not and will not help accelerate growth in the region, thus the need to finally resolve the territorial dispute.
“All governments, we believe, are there for the betterment of their people or betterment of their lives and a period of instability does not help in fostering prosperity for all,” Aquino said.
Aquino also reiterated that war is not a solution to the territorial dispute, saying that war is a “futile exercise.”
“Nobody stands to gain and in fact the whole world stands to lose if it does amount to war,” he said.
In China’s so- called Nine- Dash Line Theory, Aquino said the Philippines will lose half of its west coast if the Philippines agreed to the theory, thus, the government clamored for a rules-based approach on the territorial dispute and filed an arbitration before the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).