MARCOS: FINALIZE NEW CODE OF CONDUCT IN DISPUTED WATERS

IN A bid to ease the tension in the disputed waters, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said he will encourage his counterparts during the 42nd Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Summit to finalize the new Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea.

“Having a binding COC will make things clearer and reduce the possibility of miscalculations, hoping the regional bloc would be able to address the issues hindering the conclusion of negotiations which is a key element in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) centrality,” said Marcos.

“The solution of all of these problems is really the new Code of Conduct. That’s why I always reiterate this in every forum I can find. I always say that the Code of Conduct should be finished,” he said in a mix of Tagalog and English.

During the 40th and 41st Asean Summit in Cambodia in 2022, Marcos brought up the need for a new COC based on international law.

Marcos said the separate bilateral negotiations between Asean member-states and China are what make reaching the COC finality complicated.

He, however, maintained that negotiations for the COC in the South China Sea are separate from the Asean Summit.

“They negotiate in another way. So that’s not something that will be done here at this time. This is what we have to discuss amongst ourselves. What is the problem? What is the bottleneck? Where are we having a hard time? How can we fix that problem?” the President said.

“That’s what these meetings should be for, and I think we’ll get to that point because everybody wants this to work, everybody wants to have a Code of Conduct. So what’s getting in the way, let’s talk about it,” he added.

China refused to recognize the Arbitral Tribunal ruling in 2019 over the disputed territories in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) in favor of the Philippines.

The Philippines has raised various incidents of China’s harassment of either Filipino troops or fishermen in the disputed waters.