President Rodrigo Duterte has asked China to stay away from the Philippine claimed the Spratly Islands, Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano told his pre-departure news conference Friday night.
Before he took the four-hour flight from Manila to Seoul, where he joined President Duterte on the latter’s first official visit to the Asian country, Cayetano added that aside from Duterte’s request to China regarding lending the Philippines billions of pesos worth of loans, that if Beijing stopped entering the disputed Spratly Islands, both countries could be friends.
At the same time, Cayetano said China gave “assurance” to the Philippines regarding the latest “incident” in the disputed West Philippine Sea, which prompted the Department of Foreign Affairs to file a diplomatic protest against its giant neighbor.
Last May 11, a Philippine Navy boat resupplying Filipino troops at the Ayungin Shoal was allegedly challenged and harassed by the Chinese Coast Guard and China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy.
Cayetano explained that the note verbale on the incident was filed just recently because it “was not settled immediately” through dialogue.
While he did not elaborate on the issue, the foreign affairs chief said the Philippines already received an assurance from China over the incident.
“It’s how we should talk and how our resupplying would not be hampered. In fact, someone already went here the other day. The conversation was good—coast guard to coast guard,” Cayetano said in Filipino.
Meanwhile, the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China are set to convene negotiations for the crafting of the code of conduct on the South China Sea in August, Cayetano said.
But he admitted all parties were still facing challenges on the substance of the COC but assured that the Philippines was keen on pushing for a substantial document.
“We only have the framework as of now, but this August, there will be a meeting of the Ministers. This time around, like what we had last year, it won’t be just the Asean but also our dialogue partners, our strategic partners, they’re all included,” he said in Filipino.
“We intend to push it to get as far as we can, as fast as we can,” he added, adding the Philippines expects no less than an “effective COC.”
“We want an effective COC, something that we can rely on because the DOC (Declaration of Conduct), a lot has happened (to) it, so we want the COC clear. For example on the environment, how do we protect (it), what will be the arrangement and how do we implement (it),” Cayetano said.
Last year, the Asean regional bloc and China adopted the COC framework under the Philippines’ chairmanship, where both parties welcomed the adoption as a sign of progress after 15 years since the 2002 DOC was signed.
China, Taiwan and some Asean member states including the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Vietnam have overlapping territorial claims in the South China Sea.
During the Asean Foreign Ministers Retreat in February 2018, Singapore’s Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan admitted the COC negotiation would be “very complicated” and will require all parties to “ultimately exercise political will” to resolve sensitive issues, adding territorial claims would not be resolved with the COC alone.
For his part, Cayetano said he was confident Singapore, as the current Asean chair, would steer a fruitful COC negotiation.
“As I’ve said, Singapore is the perfect country to lead us now. (It) is a perfect country to negotiate all of this because they are open-minded and they have this mindset of no-nonsense, get things done,” he said.
He admitted there was a recent incident: one the long-range bombers and the other in Sandy Cay, and the Philippines has so far received a report of only two incidents of China’s militarization in the West Philippine Sea in two years under Duterte’s regime.
The two incidents were far lower than the several incidents of aggressive claims by China during the administration of former President Benigno Aquino III.
“Two incidents in two years,” Cayetano said.
He slammed the criticisms of the opposition, calling them “hyper and paranoid” over two incidents done by China.
Cayetano said the Duterte administration strategy was different from that of the previous administration’s.
If the previous administration preferred to announce every move—which he called “loud action”—to get the support of other nations, the present administration would rather have bilateral talks.
Unlike the leadership of then Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario where it pursued in resolving the dispute with China multilaterally, Cayetano said the present administration was handling it bilaterally through the Bilateral Consultative Mechanism.
“They try to influence the talks through diplomatic action, including protest. The difference between a protest and other diplomatic action, you solicitor you expect an answer,” he added.
He said the approach of the diplomatic action if one country did not stop, was: one, through media, where he sees as the extreme one; two, and another most extreme through military force.
During the Aquino administration, the DFA pursued a three-pronged diplomatic track approach: 1) diplomatic, through multilateral discussion; 2) political; and 3) legal track, including arbitration.
The diplomatic protest is being filed to document any action that may violate any international or local laws; which can be used when a country files an arbitration against the alleged aggressor.
None from the Aquino administration pursue a track of military force.
Cayetano admitted the Philippines could not file a protest against China’s long-range bombers since the aircraft landed outside the country’s territory.
He was reacting to Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, an American think-tank reporting that “nearly all of the Philippines falls within the radius of the bombers.”
Cayetano said since it was outside Manila’s territory, the only thing a country could do was to protest multilaterally or before the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations.
“But for you to protest about something beyond your territory, something you do not claim, it’s quite ridiculous. Professionals and experts find that funny,” he said in Filipino.
Recent aggressive actions were made last week when Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative of the Center of Strategic and International Studies reported that a long-range-missile, including top of the line H-6K long-range strategic bomber, landed in the South China Sea, particularly near the five military bases of the Philippines.
Over the past years, China has claimed some of the features of the disputed South China Sea particularly the Philippine-owned-reefs-turned-islands in the Kalayaan Group of Islands (Spratlys) where Beijing has installed weapon system in the region.
The reclamation in the South China Sea started when a standoff happened between the Philippines and China after Manila caught Beijing for catching live turtles and other resources within the country’s territory.
China’s activities over the disputed sea have become more visible when the Philippines filed a case before the Arbitral Tribunal and ruled in favor of Manila three years after declaring Beijing’s 9-dash line claim as excessive and illegal.
The Philippines has won an arbitration case against China on July 12, 2016 invalidating Beijing’s nine-dash line of its so-called Chinese ancient map.
China, on the other hand, slammed the order and said it would not recognize the Tribunal ruling, stressing that its claim to the sea is “indisputable.”
Manila’s arbitration case is limited to determining the role of historic rights and the source of maritime entitlements in the South China Sea and did not tackle territorial ownership.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration’s mandate is limited to the interpretation or application of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea.
Duterte set aside the ruling to forge better ties with China but vowed to raise it at a proper time during his presidency which ends in 2022.
