PH not giving up on sea claims, Palace assures
Malacañang has assured that the Philippines is not giving up its sovereign rights over territories in the West Philippine Sea despite recent developments in the disputed waters.
Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella assured that President Duterte’s first and last priority will always be the national interest and the well-being of the Filipino.
“We are very clear that we are not giving up our claim of sovereignty and sovereign rights over certain islands in the South China Sea, at the same
time, these matters are pursued in the context of maintaining peace and prosperity in the region,” Abella said in a statement.
The assurance was made after Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio urged the government to file an international arbitration case and a complaint with the United Nations (UN) against China over President Xi Jinping’s supposed threat of war if the Philippines pursues oil explorations in the disputed West Philippine Sea.
‘No bullying’ But Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano clarified yesterday that there was “no bullying or pushing around” during the meeting between President Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping in the sidelines of the Belt and Road Forum held in China the previous week.
In fact, Cayetano stressed that what President Xi declared during the meeting was not a threat.
“The talks was about how to avoid conflict, how to increase mutual trust and mutual respect,” he explained. “There was no language or even tone that would lead any of the two presidents to believe that there was disrespect for them or their country.”
“It is but natural that when you talk about peace and when you talk about conflict, the word war may or may not come up. I’m not confirming or denying,” Cayetano said.
According to Abella, the Philippines engaged China in a frank discussion on possible oil explorations in the West Philippine Sea and that Duterte was forthright about the Hague ruling.
“President Duterte was forthright about its economic rights awarded by the Arbitral Court in The Hague, a claim the Chinese leader said they would vigorously contest given their historic claims to the area,” Abella said.
“The Philippines and China are committed to peaceful resolutions to socio-economic, and political challenges, and the recently concluded meet on the Bilateral Consultation Mechanism is one platform for confidence-building measures, to address issues pertaining to the South China Sea,” Abella said. Duterte approach “Given this complexity both parties agreed to pursue a more peaceful resolution to the matter that satisfies both our sovereign and economic rights,” he added.
According to Abella, Duterte maintains a two-track approach to the country’s relationship with the Asian giant.
“One, to grow our healthy economic, trade and investment relationships; and to ensure that our arbitral rights in the WPS are not compromised, more so now through the newly established bilateral consultation mechanism to manage disputes in the area,” he said.
But Duterte assured The Hague ruling will not go down the drain but will bring the matter up in the proper time.
Briefing The DFA secretary said he will seek an audience with Justice Carpio and the Senate to clarify the issue on the alleged threats as soon as he returns from Russia.
“There are times when briefings would do good and I would like them to know the direction and maybe part of the strategy to the extent I can reveal, with the authority from the President of what has happened in previous negotiations,” he pointed out. “This will be communicated to them.”
Cayetano expressed confidence that the Senate will change their decision about filing a protest against China and understand the context of the President’s pronouncement once he is able to explain the issue to them.
“I just want to brief them. If they still feel calling for us to issue a protest, that’s their privilege. Right now I want to call them and tell them what happened,” he said.
Cayetano said his assessment is that there is no need for the Philippine government to issue any protests.
“There was no bullying that happened,” he stressed.
According to Cayetano, if President Duterte gives him authority to speak more on what happened in the meeting, then he will immediately do it.
Right now, all he can reveal is that the two leaders had a “very frank discussion.”
“The mutual respect could be felt and the admiration of President Duterte to President Xi and vice versa,” Cayetano said. “In fact they would not be able to speak that frank to each other if there’s no trust being developed.” (With a report from Chito A. Chavez)