Beijing—An open line of communication between the Philippines and China, especially involving the two countries’ leaders and foreign ministries, will minimize further maritime incidents in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Thursday.
Arriving from Beijing at the end of his three-day state visit to China, the President said the bilateral teams are being formed to build the “hotline” on WPS issues and ideally would have direct access to himself and Chinese President Xi Jinping, as Mr. Marcos pushed for better communication between the countries.
Meanwhile, upon the instructions and the directives of the President, House Speaker Martin Romualdez said they are undertaking an initiative “whereby at the very highest levels, we’ll have direct contact and coordination” with the Chinese government.
“In fact, I had already written the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the (Chinese) National People’s Congress, my counterpart,” Romualdez said in a press briefing with the President in Beijing before arriving in Manila Thursday afternoon.
“And in that — we shall be accepting an invitation for these bilateral engagements such as an invitation by the chairman of a delegation from the Philippine Congress to Beijing, perhaps when it’s warm or the spring or the summer and coordination and direct interaction will actually lead to a better understanding and better lines of communication,” the Speaker added.
Romualdez said he relayed this to Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines, Huang Xilian, Wednesday night “and was very delighted to see the draft of the letter which I transmitted this morning.”
The bilateral group on WPS incidents would also include the officers of the Chinese and Philippine Navies and Coast Guards, Mr. Marcos said, which would help protect Filipino fishermen and make the incidents involving Chinese ships “lessened and become less severe.”
This developed as the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Western Command is checking the veracity of a report that a Chinese coast guard vessel stopped a Philippine Navy vessel from reaching Panatag Shoal, also known as Scarborough Shoal, on December 8 last year.
At the same time, a congressional leader on Thursday urged China to withdraw all its ships from the West Philippine Sea to show its good faith in its offer to resolve territorial disputes with the Philippines in the area.
“President Xi Jinping should recall all those ships, whether military, Coast Guard, militia, or civilian so our Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard can freely conduct patrols and our fisherfolk can do fishing activities without fear of harassment,” Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez said.
A report by Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center (GKC) for National Security Innovation said Thursday that there was a “confrontation” between the Chinese vessel and the BRP Andres Bonifacio in the WPS. With Maricel Cruz (See full story online at manilastandard.net)
“We will have to check the report. We will get back to you once information is acquired,” AFP Wescom’s Lt. Col. Isagani Nato told GMA News Online.
Citing satellite images they gathered with other research centers and data providers, GKC official Raymond Powell made the disclosure during the forum “Prioritizing the National Interest in Philippine Foreign Policy” organized by the Stratbase Institute.
President Marcos stressed that the WPS is “clearly a very important issue for us” and was confident that “after we came to an agreement with the President Xi that this is an important aspect of our relationship and it’s something that is easily remedied, relatively easily remedied.”
He said that Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo and his counterparts in China will finalize the organization of the bilateral group and the situation with Filipino fishermen “will be number one on the agenda.”
“That’s entirely the point of having the bilateral team — that is continuing to discuss but as I said, I wanted to raise the level of discussion to maybe a ministerial level and with a direct access to both presidents. The intention of course is to minimize all of these incidents,” Mr. Marcos said.