Presidential aspirant Senator Manny Pacquiao met with a Chinese ambassador to discuss concerns in the West Philippine Sea.
Pacquiao said the meeting did not discuss the upcoming May 2022 polls, but Pacquiao did not name the Chinese ambassador.
In a GMA News report online, Pacquiao said “we did not talk about the election, we are talking about the dispute here in the West Philippine Sea.
And based on our discussion, we need to have a dialogue because, according to them, no one is discussing the matter with them.”
Pacquiao added that if he is elected president in 2022, he would “create a peace panel to communicate with the involved countries to resolve the territorial dispute,” the report said.
“This problem will not be solved in just one conversation. There should be many discussions. We need to build a peace panel to focus on this problem,” Pacquiao, in the report, said.
China earlier rejected the 2016 decision by the Permanent Court of Arbitration that invalidated its expansive claims over the South China Sea and that upheld the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone in the West Philippine Sea.
At the 5th Manila Forum for China-Philippines Relations last month, the vice chairman for the foreign affairs committee of China’s 13th National People’s Congress Fu Ying said China’s decision over the longstanding sea dispute was to respect the pending border disputes with many developing countries and to try to find peaceful solutions with their “friendly neighbors.”
Despite China’s talk of peaceful solutions, Beijing has expanded its hold over the disputed waters of the South China Sea by flexing its military muscle and harassing Filipino fishing vessels in areas claimed by the Philippines.
