PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte failed to condemn China’s push to control most of the disputed South China Sea on Sunday after hosting a regional summit, handing Beijing a political victory.
A day after taking center stage as host of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations leaders’ meeting, Duterte released a bland chairman’s statement that ignored last year’s international ruling outlawing China’s sweeping claims to the key waterway.
“We took note of concerns expressed by some leaders over recent developments in the area,” said the 25-page statement without any mention of what these issues were, which countries were thought to be responsible, and which heads of state raised them.
China has been turning reefs and shoals in areas of the sea claimed by the Philippines and other nations into artificial islands, and installing military facilities on them.
Asean members Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei also claim parts of the sea, but China insists it has sovereign rights over nearly all of it.
Throughout the summit Duterte said the Philippines and other nations were helpless to stop the island building, so there was no point discussing it at diplomatic events such as Saturday’s meeting.
China is not a member of the 10-nation Asean, but its ambassador to Manila worked hard to influence the tenor and content of the chairman’s statement, diplomats said.
Analysts agreed the bland statement was a result of Chinese pressure.
“This reflects the ‘Cambodianization’ of Philippine foreign policy. We’re starting to behave like Cambodia, which is extremely sensitive to China’s strategic interests,” said Renato de Castro, international studies professor at Manila’s De La Salle University.
At an Asean foreign ministers’ meeting last year in Laos, Cambodia—which has strong economic ties to Beijing—controversially blocked a proposed joint communique referring to the international tribunal’s ruling against China.
Duterte has vowed not to “taunt or flaunt” the tribunal ruling while pushing closer ties with China in the hopes of attracting billions of dollars in Chinese investment.
His predecessor, President Benigno Aquino III, had pushed hard at Asean summits for the bloc to voice its strong opposition to Chinese expansionism, and official statements at those events often reflected that.
Aquino also filed the case at the international tribunal. But the ruling against China came after Duterte took power last year.
“On the ground, there is no hindrance to China achieving absolute dominance in the South China Sea, whether in military or civilian terms, regardless of parameters set by international law,” said Jay Batongbacal, from the University of the Philippines.
The statement “makes it more difficult for Asean to agree soonest on a consistent and unified basis for dealing with China and the maritime disputes,” he said.
An earlier draft of the chairman’s statement seen by AFP cited a reference to “respect for legal and diplomatic processes.”
Another version also contained a call, championed by Vietnam according to diplomats, to cease “land reclamation and militarization” of the sea.
Both references were absent in Sunday’s final statement.
A political analyst said Duterte had abandoned efforts to press the country’s claims to disputed territories in the South China Sea when he chose not to call out Beijing’s militarization and land-grabbing activities in the chairman’s statement.
The communique, released more than 14 hours after the closing ceremonies of the 30th Asean Summit held in Manila, glossed over the strongly worded chairman’s statement last year in Laos which expressed concern to Beijing’s increasing militarization and construction activities.
De La Salle University Political Science Professor Richard Heydarian said that Duterte’s watered-down response to developments in the region placed the Philippines, along with Cambodia and Laos, among countries in the Southeast Asian region perceived to be protecting Beijing’s interest.
“Increasingly the Philippines is being seen as part of the emerging Chinese sphere of influence inside Asean, a remarkable climb down from the country’s robust position just a year ago. And this is creating deep frustration among major founders such as Indonesia and Singapore, and fellow claimant Vietnam,” De La Salle University Political Science Professor Richard Heydarian told Manila Standard.
“While not legally undermining Philippine position, the Duterte administration has abandoned efforts to press its claim per international law as the Asean chairman,” he added.
“Still, the final statement will likely be just as soft if not more than past year under Laos.”
The chairman’s statement, crafted as an outcome document to Manila’s hosting of the biannual summit, expresses the position taken by Asean leaders on key issues affecting region.
The statement, which never directly called out the international arbitral tribunal ruling won by Manila against Beijing, nor China directly—only called for the “full respect for legal and diplomatic processes,” a phrase which China wanted to be stripped out, which is heavily seen in diplomatic circles as referring to the arbitral ruling.
