SENATORS are set to brief President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on the West Philippine Sea (WPS) issue Wednesday night with a view to making the Philippine government adopt a stronger position on the matter particular on China’s persistent harassment of Filipino fishermen in the contested territory.
Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said they will brief the President about Senate Resolution 718, condemning China’s oppressive acts against the Filipino fishermen.
“It is a private dinner, but we will mention it to the President. Of course, we understand that he has to do a balancing act. He has to be firm and practice diplomacy at the same time,” Zubiri told reporters ahead of the meeting.
“That said, the Senate has to be the bad cop here, so we can give the President more ammunition, that this is the unified voice of the Philippines, so he can say look, I’m getting pressure from the senators. We have to push back [on these Chinese aggression]. Otherwise, we just might wake up and find them in Palawan already,” Zubiri said.
The resolution urges China to stop its “illegal activities” in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and with the 2016 ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA).
Zubiri clarified that the senators’ meeting with the President has long been set and was not in response to the Senate Resolution 718.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo has said they were looking at the possibility of bringing the issue of Chinese aggression in the WPS before the UN General Assembly (UNGA).
Chinese aggression has been a grave ccern of the Philippine government even if the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration upheld the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the WPS, outlawed Chinese aggression in common fishing ground areas, and rejected China’s expansive nine-dash-line claim of the entire South China Sea.
Meanwhile, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano renewed his warning that the Philippine’s claim on the WPS might be weakened if the country failed to get unanimous votes in the UNGA.
“If we bring this matter before the UNGA, anything less than a unanimous vote will only weaken our position and clutter the issues,” Cayetano said.
“We are already on very firm ground based on International Law from the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and The Hague arbitration award,” he added.
Cayetano, a former secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs, related that the UNGA is not a venue for law enforcement.
To jumpstart a joint approach to the WPS dilemma, he cited the need to have an aggressive and sincere effort to have direct negotiations as well as confidence-building measures with China.
Cayetano believes this would help resolve the WPS issues and the country’s relationship with China even in the short term as efforts were being exerted towards an acceptable solution in the long term.
He said both countries have a large stake in maintaining stability in the region.
Since every country in the whole ASEAN is scrambling to get back on their economic feet as soon as possible following the COVID-19 pandemic that hit the world, he noted that peace, order, and stability were essential for steady progress and development.
“We cannot be ignorant of geopolitics. We must be conscious of, and sensitive to the dynamics of rival superpowers, yet be assertive thatsuperpowers should not force upon us their way of doing things in the region,” he said.
He said the Senate must continue the discussion on the WPS.
“Let’s get things done in the WPS based on what is right, not on might,” he said.
In resolving the issues of the WPS and our relationship with China, we need to have an aggressive and sincere effort to have direct negotiations as well as confidence-building measures with China, Cayetano stressed.